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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alistair Huong

When Troubles Come

I'm gonna be telling you a story about God's amazing love and then I'm gonna preach you a sermon about God's amazing love.

The title of our message this morning is when troubles come.

Father, this morning we come before you thankful for life and thankful for all of the other blessings that we don't even know about.

And as we come, and as I share what you have done for me, I pray that hearts will be touched, and that your word also may be uplifted.

Send your spirit to be here with us now we pray in Jesus name.

On December 19, I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I woke up that morning in the Hilton Hotel, getting ready for a very busy day of GYC.

It happened to be the first day of GYC, and I was a vice president at the time for logistics.

So I was responsible for the registration and hotels and all sorts of things.

As I was sitting on the couch in my hotel room early that morning, suddenly I felt a burning pain in my neck and it radiated quickly down through my shoulders, my arms, my upper chest, and within 15 minutes, I was paralyzed.

I collapsed on the floor and I could not move, at least my arms.

I could still move my legs and I tried to get up and they were too weak to support my weight and I collapsed on myself again.

After, fortunately, I had a number of friends with me in my hotel room and they called all of their physician friends and it was soon determined that I had some serious condition that I needed to be in the ER right away.

Fortunately, just 8 minutes away was the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

And there I was admitted into the ER right away, and over the course of the next few hours, I became completely immobile from the neck down.

I lost all, almost all, autonomic functions of my body, And before the end of the day, I was put onto a ventilating machine, a respirator.

And my parents were on their way to GYC, fortunately, And by the time they got there, I was sedated unconscious with a big tube down my throat and for the next 2 days I was Largely unconscious.

I I large I don't remember really anything but what I was told was that during that time I underwent extensive testing and examinations and all sorts of things.

They poked a lot of things into my body and I seem to have tubes coming out of every orifice of my body.

But during that time the doctors were scrambling to discover what was wrong with me.

But what they could say was that the prognosis was dismal.

They knew by that time that I had a spinal cord injury, but they didn't know how serious it was.

And with most spinal cord injuries, it was highly likely that I would either A, die, or B, never fully recover from the condition I was in.

And so there I was, unconscious in the ICU in Minnesota, Not able to move my body, not able to breathe on my own.

And the doctors were thinking that I would possibly stay that way the rest of my life.

And Friday evening came, and that was the first thing I remember, Friday evening.

Pastor Mark Finley and a group of my friends, who all happen to be at GYC, came and they had an anointing service for me that night.

And then the next morning, Sabbath morning, the entire convention, as well as a live 3ABN broadcast had a season of prayer on my behalf.

And by Sunday at the end of GYZ, I was off the ventilator.

By the next day on Monday, I was moved out of the ICU.

By the end of that week, I could stand and I could walk on my own.

By the next week, I was well enough to fly home to Loma Linda.

After 16 days, I was discharged from the University of Minnesota Medical Center to Loma Linda.

And there for 2 more weeks I underwent intense rehab and then I was a discharged to go home and I've been going through rehab ever since.

You may wonder why my arms are sort of floppy.

But considering where I was, I am very thankful for what I do have.

That's the very abbreviated version of the story God is good isn't he?

But you know I've been asked this question especially since I've had this incident just a few months ago almost 3 months ago and that question comes from well-meaning Christians mostly.

They asked the question, why would God allow his people to suffer?

Have you ever asked that question before?

Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people, especially people that claim to be his own.

People who claim to be Christians, people who try their very best to do for their Lord their utmost.

Why would God allow bad things to happen to good people?

If you have your Bibles I invite you to turn with me to the book 2nd Timothy.

I'm gonna be interspersing other little experiences from my story in this sermon, so don't be alarmed.

Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 it says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

I Think we need to establish this from the onset and that is that if we do claim to be true followers of Jesus Christ We should expect to suffer We should expect difficulties to come Because the Bible says it is the only logical conclusion But why?

That's the question that I seek to answer today.

Why would God allow his people to suffer?

7 reasons why God would allow his people to go through pain and difficulty.

Number 1, to reveal God's goodness and his mercy.

Now you may be thinking, that's contradictory.

If God is so good, why would he demonstrate his goodness, or how can he demonstrate his goodness, by allowing bad things to happen?

We don't know how good God really has been to us until we realize how bad this world can really be.

God realizes that if we just taste of his goodness and his blessings all the time, we become immune to his goodness.

We begin to see God not being so good anymore.

And so sometimes God allows things to jostle us to to prick us so we'll wake up and say Lord you have been good to us Romans 8 verse 28 many of you know that verse you can recite it by memory it says And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose.

You notice this verse talks about those who love God and that's what my focus is for this message.

Not all of those things work out for good you see what I'm saying sometimes for the consequences of wicked people You know the the lake of fire isn't necessarily a good thing for those people But what I'm saying here Is that for God's people to those who genuinely love God for those who are called according to his purpose?

When difficulties come they are for a good purpose Demonstrate God's goodness and 1 of the ways that God reveals his goodness at least to me Let me attach this to the verse 1st Corinthians 10 verse 13.

1st Corinthians 10 verse 13 it says, there has no temptation, We can also be translated test or trial there has been no trial taking you but such as is common to man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted or tested Above that you're able but will with every trial also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.

1 of the ways that God reveals his goodness is that when he allows difficulties to come, he only allows what you are capable of carrying.

I told you that I got sick in Minnesota, in Minneapolis.

Did you know where I was just 24 hours prior to that?

I was living in a house by myself in the country, up in the mountain, in Dayton, Tennessee, an hour away from the nearest hospital in Chattanooga.

If I had been sick 1 day earlier, who knows what would have happened?

And it just happened that I was just a couple blocks away from 1 of the leading neurology hospitals in the US The University of Minnesota Medical Center is 1 of the only medical centers that actually have a neurology I see you did you know that as far as I know we don't even have that in Loma Linda, right Norman?

And speaking of Norman, Norman was there with me the whole time.

I mean, isn't it just so, I mean it's just a coincidence.

It's so convenient to be traveling to have a neurological disorder with a senior neurology resident.

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When Troubles Come

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