Introduction

We can have hope even when life hurts the most… trouble is coming, that’s the reality. In that trouble we may not have any answers, but we can always have hope, no matter what. That hope is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. The message is not that Christians don’t suffer and die. The message is that those who have put their hope in Jesus have an overcoming Savior. The grave and death are not the end of us.

When the bottom drops out, focus on the cross because… The cross is proof that God loves us. The cross is proof that God doesn’t always change the circumstance. The cross is proof that God has a purpose even in bleak situations. The toughest question isn’t, “Is God good?” But, “will I trust Him in whatever He allows in my life?” The cross is a megaphone for suffering. It was for Jesus. Angels sang when Christ was born. God spoke when He was baptized. The empty tomb was a big anthem. But God spoke the loudest at the cross of Jesus Christ. And we speak loudest to the world when we suffer.

When life hurts most, the world listens intently to our message… When life hurts what message are we going to broadcast to the world?

This site was developed from the DVD presentation “Hope - When Life Hurts Most” featuring Louie Giglio. The DVD was produced by Passion Conferences, a ministry whose stated mission is “to spread the fame of Jesus Christ to the 16+million college students of the US and countless others around the globe.”

Clips from the presentation are available below ...

Part 1 (9:54)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO6dXEOzzFo
 
Part 2 (8:31)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJEqBf23YA

DVD Transcript - Part One

Part One - The Anchor of Hope

The Huge Potholes of Life. Some of us might have thought that when we started following God that everything would start falling into place, and instead everything started falling out of place. It seems like as soon as we started following God things have gotten as bad as they have ever been.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 16 Jesus is about to be crucified. And He speaks about two things in this passage, and they are both true, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

That’s take possession of, that’s not hope for peace, or wish for peace, but have peace. And Jesus tells us where we can have that peace. In Him we can have peace. Some might wonder, “What peace is Jesus talking about?” The peace that He is talking about is only found in a relationship with Him.


There Are Two Realities
There is a spiritual kingdom, one that has no end and is perfect and beautiful, and a present reality, this world, broken down, falling apart, corrupted by sin, filled with chaos. “In this world, you will have trouble.” Is there anyone who understands trouble, big time trouble? Not the, we lost the keys trouble, not the argument on the way to church trouble, but huge faith shaking trouble. The kind of trouble that rocks us down to the core, and makes us think things like, “I don't even know if there is a God”, kind of trouble. Big time Mt. Everest sized trouble that comes and almost snuffs us out. It may not be this morning, it may not be this week, but it's coming. And that's why its good news that we know where peace is found.

We Are In Two Overlapping Realities
One is called trouble and the other way above it is an overcoming Savior. And they are both true at the same time. If we separate those realities we will get two really bad theologies… (Or a spiritual viewpoint for life.)


One viewpoint - Life’s hard
Get used to it. Roll with it. That’s just the way it is and you can't do a thing about it. Not a good spiritual viewpoint. It certainly doesn’t sound very overcoming.

Another viewpoint - The flip side of the first one. God’s for us. I’m a Christian, and therefore everything is going to be smooth sailing from here for me. I’m not going to accept that there is going to be any hardship. Nothing bad is going to happen to me.

Both of these views apart from each other are terrible theologies, and they don’t work.
But if you put them together, then you start to enter in to what Jesus is talking about. And it is this... trouble comes, life hurts, but God is bigger, and God is always at work. Christians are not exempt from difficulty. We are going to have just the same hardships the rest of the world is going to have. But we have confidence in Jesus, who said, “In it all, through it all, no matter what happens, at all times I’m an overcoming Savior”, and there’s hope in that. We may not know when but we need to know that trouble is going to come. And when it comes, this is the question, where do we turn? Our life may be great right now, but in a day or a week, and hour, or a moment, maybe next month, or the month after that, the bottom going to drop out. Where do we turn when life hurts most? Where do we turn when the bottom drops out?
Somewhere to Turn
There is somewhere to turn when life hurts. It is to the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s where we turn when the bottom drops out. But someone might say, “Wait a minute...the cross, that’s about the past, that's about salvation, that’s about having our sins forgiven.” No, the cross is the centerpiece, the cross is the core, and the cross isn’t something we come to and do business with God, and then move on from in life, the cross is everything. “We have this hope [the new relationship with God through Jesus Christ] as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf...” (Hebrews 6:19-20a, NIV)
The word picture that the writer of Hebrews gives is an anchor for the soul - that is where we have to be focused when life hurts most. We might get shipwrecked here; we might get washed over all together. We don’t know what’s going to happen to us, we’ve got to have something that’s going to go into bedrock - that’s going to keep us from going all together out of the picture. And that is the cross of Jesus, and what He’s done for us. It’s not just something that gets us into Heaven, it’s an anchor for the soul. For eternity and salvation, and an anchor for all the steps of this life. And that's the thing that we have got to be holding on to when life hurts most. That’s the place that we’ve got to be.


If we will look at the cross when life hurts most we will see four things…
The first thing that the cross tells us is that God loves us. It’s at the cross that can understand that God loves us. That’s what we need to know most when the bottom falls out of life, “God loves me.” Because one of the thoughts that might have run through our minds when trouble comes is, “God must not love me, because He is letting this happen to me.” The only way to get past that thought is to get eyeball to eyeball with the cross of Jesus. The cross is the place that we know that God loved us before we ever made a move towards Him. 1 John 4 says it this way, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10, NIV) So when the bottom drops out we need to say to ourselves, “Get your eyes on the cross because as soon as you do, you’ll at least know this that God loves you.” This is not going to be a simple answer, please understand, that's not going to make sense maybe of what’s going on, it’s just going to assure us in the middle of it all, one of the things that we are going to be anchored to is, there is a God who loves us unconditionally and He always has. And we know that it is true, not because of our circumstances (they may be telling us that opposite of that.) We know it’s true because of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The second thing that the cross tells us is that God allows freedom, but He maintains control. We probably don’t fully understand this completely. But we see it at the cross. Here is an example. At the cross men crucified Jesus. Acts chapter 2, says that He was crucified at the hands of angry men. One of the authorities came out because it was a religious holiday, and he would always release a criminal on a holiday. He said to the crowd, I’m going to release somebody today. So He says, I’ll let you guys decide, you want Barabus, a notorious criminal, or do you want Jesus? And they started yelling, “We want you to free Barabus and we want Jesus Christ crucified.” That looks like a mob gone crazy, and it looks like nobody is in control. Guys came to work and they punched a clock, and they crucified Jesus. The guys who crucified Jesus didn’t have anything against Him, some of them were just going to work that day, and their job was, we crucify people. Who’s coming today? That guy, put him down, drive in the stakes, raise up the beam, go home and see the family. It’s just done. It’s men doing their job, it’s freedom, its choice, it looks like chaos, but when we see the cross, was God in charge or not? Did men make choices? Yes. God allowed freedom and He maintained control and He's doing that right now.
God is in control of our life. And He always in control of this world. But this world is crazy and it's broken down and because of the freedom of this world, all kind of horrible stuff happens and all kind of trouble comes into our lives. Some might say, “Well why didn't God stop that?” He will and He can. But when He does, life, as we know it will be over. He will stop all the craziness. But for now, there’s trouble, and an overcoming Jesus.


The third thing that the cross tells us is that God can use the worst for eternal good. Now if we were at the cross, if we were there on Good Friday, what would we think? We might think God is not powerful or even real. Or we might think everything He promised was just a fairy tale. We might think that there’s nothing to believe in. Standing there we might think this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen on planet earth, that the Son of God would be beaten, stripped naked, beaten, and crucified to death. But we are not standing at the foot of the cross. We are not on Good Friday. We are here today with all these years of history behind us. From our vantage point now we might see the cross of Jesus is perhaps the most beautiful ever. And that’s because God can take the worst thing and turn it into something for eternal good. And we have to know that when the bottom falls out of life.
There’s a fourth thing we see when we look at the cross, and it is that God paints on a canvas bigger than we can see or understand. If we saw the cross as a snapshot we might think, “Man, God has lost control, or He isn’t loving or powerful.” But now we see it as a little part of a huge mosaic of the story of God. And it’s really the bright, shining tile in that mosaic. It’s because God is always painting on a canvas bigger than we can see or understand. At the end of the day there’s hope. There’s an anchor for the soul at the cross of Christ. God has never lost control. God will take the worst and use it for eternal good. God is painting on a canvas bigger than we can see, or understand. That cross is saying, “God understands and God cares.”
Consider this example - The Disciples in the Storm (Mark 4)
 Many of the disciples were seasoned fisherman and yet they feared a storm that came over them in the boat, so much so that they came to think that Jesus who was with them didn't care. Reading in Mark 4:35-40, “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” (Also Matt. 8:23–27; Luke 8:22-25) These fearful disciples later became bold in trusting Christ and spreading the gospel to others.
When bad stuff happens we might want to run away from God, be mad at God, and hate God. But if we look at the cross we can't because we realize we can’t stop with the question we all want to ask, “God, why is this happening to me?”

If we will look at the cross another thought might emerge, and it is this, “What’s happening to me happened to you. You know about pain. You went through loss. You suffered death. You were mistreated. You were rejected. You’ve been there, you know. You can relate to me right now.” “I’m not going to run away from the cross. I’m going to run to the cross. I won’t run away from you Lord, I’m going to run to You because You are the only person who really knows what I’m feeling right now and what I’m going through.”
Sure God can change the circumstance. And we pray that He would, and sometimes He does. But… The cross is proof that God doesn't always change the circumstance. The cross is also proof that He always has a purpose in every circumstance. God also promises He will never let go of us no matter what comes our way.
He will hold us and His truth and His cross will be an anchor for us no matter what. And it may not be for us today, but it is coming, big time trouble, and when it does, the hope in trouble is the cross of Jesus Christ.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29) “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18)

Our afflictions work in us a far exceeding weight of glory. “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things, which are seen, but at the things, which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18)

All text New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.

DVD Transcript - Part Two

Part Two - The Megaphone of Hope

The Message Isn’t That Christians Don’t Suffer And Die
 
That’s not the message. We should not try and paint this wonderful picture that says, “Just give your life to God and everything will be fantastic after that.” The message is not, “Christians don’t suffer,” or “Christians don't have hardship.”

But the message is this, “The grave is not the last part of our life.” The grave isn’t the end of those who have put their hope [trust] in Jesus. We have already been brought back from the dead, spiritually, in Jesus Christ. We’ve already been given the gift of eternal life that will never end. The message is Christians have an overcoming Savior, who has brought us back from the dead. And the grave and death are not the end of us.”

Jesus said trouble is coming. Trouble might not come today, it might not come tomorrow, it might not come this week, or this month but it is coming, but when it comes we need to know that we have an overcoming Savior. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

So when the dark night comes and it is tempting to ask, “Why is this happening to me?” We can know it’s not about us. It’s about living in a broken world with trouble, and it’s coming. So that when trouble comes we can jump over the “why” question and say, “I knew trouble was coming, Jesus said hardship was coming. I knew death was coming. I knew these days were around the corner. It’s been calm and I thank God for the calm stretch. But I knew that there would be troubled waters ahead.”

Jesus Offers A Place Where We Can Find Peace
 
The second thing that we can see in the midst of suffering is that Christ offers us a place where we can find peace. Jesus says, “In Me you may have peace.” Not peace in some belief system, or some historical understanding of Christ, but in a close, personal relationship with Him.

Consider the words of the Psalmist…“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. 2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. 3 He has put a new song in my mouth - praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3)

The cross is an anchor for us. God is in control, even though He allows freedom. God takes the worst things on earth and uses them for good. The cross tells us that, God paints on a canvas bigger than we can see or understand. The cross tells us that God understands what we are going through so that when the bottom falls out, we don’t run away from God. We run towards Jesus Christ. Because we understand that He's the only one who really understands the kind of pain that we are feeling in our lives.

The cross is an anchor for us when the trouble comes. The cross is also a megaphone that amplifies our message [whatever it may be] to the entire world.

We are all broadcasting something with our lives
 
Suffering and hardship are amplifiers to whatever is in our hearts. That was true of Jesus. His message is the loudest at the place where His life hurt the most. When we think of one thing that really defines Jesus. One thing really stands out. He died on a cross. That's what history knows about Jesus. He gave His life on a cross.

Suffering is a megaphone for the message that is in our hearts. The question today isn’t, “Is trouble coming?” The question is, “what are we going to amplify to the world when trouble comes?” What’s going to be cranked up volume wise in our life when trouble comes?” It’s us shouting, “This is what I think life is about.” Our message will be based on our life view - the way we look at life, and value life. Most peoples life message is self-preservation, and the preservation of the people they love the most. Most of us want to get as far down the road in life as we can, in the best shape we can. We don’t want to go out at 30, we don't want to go out at 40, we don’t want to go out at 50, or at 60. But we also don’t want to go to 90 and not be in good shape. We all want to get as far down stream as we can with as much calm water as we can without any pain and suffering. And we want the same for the people we love the most.

So a great day is that everybody made it home safely, everybody is in the house, everything’s good, nobody is sick, nobody’s got trouble, nothings wrong, everybody’s good. How are you all doing? We are all good. That’s good. That’s what we were shooting for. Praise God, life is good. Is there anything wrong with having self-preservation and preservation of those you love as the priority of your life?

No one wants hardship to come. No one wants the people they love to suffer, and rightly so. But those can't be the pinnacle things on our list. Those shouldn’t be the consuming things on our list. Because if they are, when death comes, when suffering comes, our mission in life can be snuffed out in an instant.

We might know people whose main priority is to get themselves and those they love safely through life, and all of a sudden the trouble comes and they just slam into a wall. And its just over and their message, their life message what they have purported to be, the story of what life’s all about just crumbles at that moment. And they don’t have anything to say and nothing to hope in and nothing to cling to. But they do have a megaphone because with suffering whether they want it or not. And what they are amplifying to the world is this, “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make sense, God isn’t real, you can’t trust anything, this life is pointless.” And they shout that message at the top of their voice to the whole wide world.

But there should be another purpose for those that have placed their faith in Christ. And that purpose is higher. Yes, we have our safety and the safety of our families as priorities. But way above that is a greater purpose, the purpose of making much of Jesus Christ. It is the purpose of glorifying God with our lives. We might wonder, “Why would I want to make my highest purpose in life glorifying God?” Well, simply because He gave us life. He gave us the life that we have. And if we are believers, He bought us back from sin and death and gave us a whole new eternal future with Him. He’s given us the Holy Spirit. He’s connected us with Him forever. And so the highest value of our lives ought to be lifting Christ up, to make much of Him.

Here’s the amazing thing, if our highest mission and aim in life is to make much of Jesus Christ the one who gave us life - then death, suffering, hardship, and anything else this world throws at us cannot stop our mission.

Then death, suffering, and hardship only become a megaphone to amplify our message, which is, “I believe in Jesus, and I believe in a God who is big, and a God who is good.” That was true of Jesus Christ Himself and we see that when we read the next few verses down, John 17:1, “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.” Jesus was saying, “Lift Me and shine a light on Me, and when you lift Me and shine a light on Me, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to shine that light right back on you, Father.”

Lifting up Jesus
It’s not wrong for God to shine a spotlight on you. He will do that. He wants to cause people to know who you are and what you are about and to see the goodness in your life. But, why? So, that we can say, “Oh, I understand. You have glorified me or elevated my so that I can glorify and elevate You.” That's what Jesus said. It’s the purpose of His life. He’s not about self-preservation. It’s not about getting down the road without suffering. He’s about to be crucified on a Roman cross. So He’s saying, “I’ve got a bigger purpose.” We see this purpose in John Chapter 17. “As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:2-3)

That’s what Eternal Life is
It’s not about going to Heaven when you die. That’s part of it, but eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus. That’s what eternal life is all about - a relationship.

More insight into this is found in ...

John Chapter 12:23-26
“But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life [that’s person number 1, self preservation and all about keeping me intact] will lose it, and he who hates his life [that’s not saying I hate me...it’s saying, I admit this world isn’t all there is...and I want to live for a higher purpose] in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”

John Chapter 12:27-28
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. [And now we hear His purpose oozing out] 28 Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

John Chapter 12:29
“Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”

John Chapter 12:29-33
“Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.” 30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth [a picture of Him being lifted up on a beam of crucifixion], will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.”

The cross is a megaphone of suffering. It was for Jesus 
 
The cross becomes the loudest place. Yes, Angels sang when He was born. Yes, God spoke when He was baptized. Yes, when Jesus did the miracles it was God trying to say something. Yes, at the tomb there was a big anthem. But God spoke the loudest to us at the cross of Jesus Christ. And we speak loudest to the world when we suffer.

God’s goodness should not be defined by what is (or is not) happening in our lives. God's goodness should ultimately be defined in the cross. The cross is once and for all, the place to settle the question of, “Is God good?” And if so, is He always up to good in our lives? Of course He is always up to good. And He always has something good happening regardless of how it feels or seems in the present time.

The most important question isn’t, “Is God good”, but “will I trust Him in whatever He allows in my life?” And yes, God is good, and God is in control. Death is not the end. Because of the shed blood of Christ, we can have an assurance of a restored relationship with God, which includes heaven.

2 Corinthians 4:14-18
“Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things, which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”


In summary…

1. Check Our Purpose For Life
If our primary purpose for life is extending and preserving our own life and those we love, we should consider trading up to a higher purpose of glorifying God today.

2. Expect Difficulty
That does not mean that we are counting out the supernatural intervention of God. He does that. If we are in trouble today we would pray, we should fast, we should cling to God’s promises, we should look for a miracle, we should expect that God can do anything. He can change a course. He can put things back together again.

3. Hope In The Cross
When trouble comes we need to cling to the cross of Jesus and don’t let go.

4. Use Suffering For His Glory
Suffering is to be our servant; we are not to be the servants of our hardship. We are not the servants of what’s been handed to us. It is our servant. If our message is God is great and God is good then we should use our suffering to broadcast that message. Our light and momentary affliction [Paul had big time trouble*] is working for us a far more eternal weight of glory. So we look not at the things that are seen but also those unseen. The things that are seen are temporarily and pass away but the things that are unseen those are the things that last forever.

* Paul’s Troubles In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, Paul speaks of his trials in the ministry, “Are they ministers of Christ? - I speak as a fool - I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

What are we going to broadcast to the world?
 
The message of hope that we can know the anchor will hold us in the storm and it is the message that says, “Let’s choose to live for the stuff that matters most in the calm stretches and the rough stretches of life.” Remember God is good. The cross proves it.

All text New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.
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