There are dark times each one of us experiences when we’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. We want to give up—quit—because the pain is so intense and we can’t see a way out of it. Are you in such a dark time right now? God will comfort your hurts, calm your fears, and give you great hope if you will trust in Him.
timeless
truths a collection of classic sermons
from dr
charles stanley today’s selection
recorded in 1998
walking through dark times with god
[Music]
when you go through dark moments in your
life
and you don’t understand exactly what’s
going on
you can’t figure out why things are
happening the way they are
you look around you you don’t see any
real reason or purpose for it
or you may even look for somebody to
blame or feel somebody’s responsible
or it just might be that you come to the
place you think god where are you
you don’t sense his presence anymore and
how could god possibly
love you and allow you to walk through
such awesome darkness as you feel
and somehow no matter what you do and
how
spiritual you may feel like you have
been
you’re going through a period of time in
your life and you have
absolutely no understanding of what is
going on
and how long is this going to last and
why do i feel this pain
why do i feel the hurt what did i do to
deserve this
how do you respond when you’ve had those
feelings
in those moments of darkness well that’s
what i want to talk about in this
message
entitled walking with god through dark
times
i want you to turn if you will to
genesis first book in the bible
i want us to look if you will beginning
in this 37th chapter
because in this 37th chapter begins
the story of the life of joseph all the
way to the end of the book of genesis 50
chapter 50.
and you say well why would you choose
someone like joseph because here’s a
young man
who walked through the darkness for 13
years before the light
absolutely broke in awesome radiance
upon him
and the reason god has placed the lives
of these men in the scripture is because
it is through their lives he likens
helps us to liken our experiences to
them maybe not the same thing
but the same kind of experience and
likewise and the most important is this
that the principles that god wants to
teach us
he teaches us by unfolding them
in the way he operates in the lives of
other people
and so the life of joseph this is a
perfect example
of how god works in our life when you
and i walk through the darkness
so you say well now what do you mean by
darkness i mean
simply this those difficult hard trying
times
temptation difficulty trials
persecutions
that you and i go through that sometimes
we just can’t understand
why or what is happening it may be
financial it may be in your family it
may be your relationships
whatever it might be but we all have
those times we go through
so i want you to look if you will in
this first verse of chapter 37.
now jacob lived in the land where his
father has sojourned in the land of
canaan
these are the records of the generations
of jacob
joseph when 17 years of age was
pastoring the flock with his brothers
while he was still a youth
along with the sons of bilhah and the
sons of zilpah
his father’s wives and joseph brought
back a bad report
about them to their father now israel
loved joseph more than all his sons
because he was the son of his old age
and he made him a very colored tunic and
his brother saw that their father loved
him more than all his brothers
and so they hated him and could not
speak to him on friendly terms now
imagine
having 11 brothers and none of them like
you
but listen this gets worse verse 11 and
his brothers were jealous of him
but his father kept the saying in mind
he told about a dream
now this is the beginning
of a long period of darkness so let me
recount the darkness for a moment
his brothers didn’t like him
they hated him and they were jealous of
him and of course he
felt this living in a family of those
kind of close ties
and seemingly nobody likes you and if
you’ll recall that he
also told his entire family about this
dream he had
that he had these sheaves were in the
field and his sheaf was in the middle
and everybody else’s was around
his and they all bowed down to his
sheave well
you can imagine how that stirred up uh
good heart good feelings and of course
that just made them that much more angry
even his parents didn’t understand all
this
well one day he went to find his
brothers for his father and they saw him
coming
they said it’s about time we settle this
issue let’s kill him and so
they decide to kill him well reuben of
course did not want that to happen and
so
they finally decided to throw him in a
pit there was no water in the pit so
they figured ultimately something would
happen and finally these ishmaelites
came along and they were on their way to
egypt and so they decided to sell him
so they sold him for 20 pieces of civil
what a bargain
sold him for 20 pieces of silver so he
goes to egypt and he goes down to egypt
he gets sold on the block somewhere
and so he’s a slave and so he becomes a
slave in potiphar’s household
potiphar is one of the folks who works
close to pharaoh and so he’s a slave in
part of his household
well he gets a little glimmer of hope
here because uh he proves himself
and potiphar finally puts all of his
belongings
into the hand of joseph he trusts him
that much
he says joseph’s over everything that i
own
well he did such a good job that uh
potiphar’s wife was attracted to him
and so she tried to get him to go to bed
with her
and he would not do it and so she framed
him and had him thrown in prison
so the darkness is getting darker and so
in prison for example he’s there for
some time we don’t know how long but uh
before he’s recognized by the chief
jalen chief jailer recognizes something
different about joseph and before long
this man’s in charge of the jail and so
from the age of from the age of 17 to
the age of 30 13 years
we find young joseph walking through
a period of almost uninterrupted
darkness in his life
now as we said before god uses people to
teach people
and therefore if you and i want to learn
the ways of god how he operates and how
we to respond
then we look to see how did god operate
in the life of a person
like jose if you say well now wait a
minute now but my life’s not like joseph
he was over there in egypt and i’m here
in the united states and
all these things that’s not even the
issue the issue is this what’s the
principle god works by
god is still listen god has not changed
his principles over these years
the principles he used in the life of
joseph and moses
david and daniel and paul and pete and
all the rest he’s still operating the
same basis because god doesn’t change
he operated on the basis of perfection
then he operated on a basis
of the same purpose as then as he has
today so god
is going to operate in the same
principles in your life in my life no
matter who we are
and what we do now the first thing i
want you to jot down
is this when you and i are walking
through dark times the first thing to
remember is this
god is with us this young man went
through
13 years a very very dark time
joseph began to learn very early in his
life
god was with him he gave him favor
to the man who bought him as a slave
he gave him favor to a man who no doubt
was rather a rough
uh crude probably kind of man because he
was
overseeing all those egyptian prisoners
and those kind of people
aren’t usually the kind gentle type he
saw in joseph some qualities
that finally he just turned it all over
to him one thing that he knew
god was with him you and i are quick to
quote the 23rd psalm when we go through
those dark periods in our life and you
remember the phrase that we probably
like the best of all that is even though
we walk through the valley of the shadow
of death
the dark times he says i will fear no
evil for
what thou what art with me
it is the fact and the assurance that
god is with us that makes all the
difference
he says i will never leave you nor
forsake you turn if you will to the
139th psalm
because oftentimes it’s difficult for us
to believe that god is with us
when we are hurting we are feeling pain
and we’re asking god where are you why
don’t you change my circumstances
we’ve got lots of questions for him and
somehow he doesn’t seem to get upset
with our questions
and i want you to notice in this 139th
psalm which deals with the whole idea
of our running from him or escaping from
him and listen to what he says
just in the 11th and 12th verses david
says if i
say surely the darkness shall overwhelm
me
and the light around me will be night
even the darkness
is not dark to thee and the night is as
bright as the day
darkness and light are alike to thee
and here’s what it should say to us when
you and i are walking through those dark
times and
we wonder god where in the world are you
and what’s going on it’s what you can
remember
that almighty god who saved us who lives
on the inside of us is with us
i will never leave you nor forsake you
now here’s the difference
it is easier for us to believe
in the presence of god or sense the
presence of god in
life when when things are going our way
it’s sort of easy to believe yes i do
believe god’s with me but what about
when the light’s taken away and
everything looks dark and gloomy and i
don’t see any light at the end of the
tunnel out there anywhere
then can i still believe that my god who
promised to be with me who will never
forsake me
am i willing to believe that he’s with
me now when i don’t feel his presence i
don’t see his presence
and somehow i can’t conceive that he
could allow me to go through this do i
still believe he’s with me
yes yes he is god is with me
no matter what principle number two
god always has a purpose for the
darkness
he allows us to walk through god always
has a purpose for the darkness
he allows us to walk through now if i
understand listen carefully what i’m
going to say now if i understand what
that purpose is
somehow no matter how dark it is i can
manage
better but most of the time we don’t
understand what the purpose is
most of the time we don’t discover what
that purpose is until after we are out
of the darkness but oftentimes god is
willing
to reveal to us what it is now joseph i
don’t think joseph understood
what god’s purpose was i don’t think he
ever forgot
that dream he had when all the other
sheaves in his family bowed down before
his
i don’t think he understood that more
than like they’d kept coming back to him
he’d probably think well god
what in the world did that dream mean it
certainly doesn’t seem that it meant
much
you know here i got framed by part of
his wife now i’m a prisoner i’m here in
prison even though i’m in charge
i’m still i’m still an egyptian prisoner
i’m still in prison
you see god is under no obligation to
show you and me what his purpose is but
what i want you to notice is this
god never operates without a purpose
god does not allow you and me nor does
he send us through
the dark moments of our life without a
purpose he always
has a specific purpose in mind because
he predestined you and me to be
conformed to the likeness of his son
god doesn’t do things haphazardly and he
does not allow things just to happen to
us now listen
when you hear christians talk about let
me tell you what happened to me and all
of us say that
what i want you to remember is this
whenever you say this just happened and
that just happened
it could only happen under the divine
all-knowing supervision of a sovereign
god
who has every single thing in life under
his control
who has a definite purpose in your life
and who is allowing
these things to happen for a definite
purpose now you say well
why in the world would god allow young
men like
like joseph whom the bible says
nothing negative about why allow him 13
years of walking through this darkness
god had a very specific purpose
preserving the nation of egypt
preserving listen not the nation of
egypt but the nation of israel
jacob and his family remember one of
remember his sons
one of whom was judah through whom that
was the line through whom the redeemer
the messiah the lord jesus christ came
friend god
is always ahead of us he’s got
everything under control
he’s working everything in his absolute
perfect timing
he has a purpose for every single
solitary thing
it took 13 years to train up this young
hebrew to become
the prime minister of the entire nation
of egypt
and it would be joseph himself this
young hebrew
who grew up in egyptian bondage who
would ultimately second only
the pharaoh rule the economy of the
whole
nation god had a specific purpose third
thing i want you to remember
he will only keep us in the darkness
until he has accomplished that purpose
he’s only going to keep us there until
he’s accomplished that purpose whatever
it is
now with joseph it took from the age of
17 to 30.
when god’s timing was right when it fit
into god’s plan for what he was going to
do in the world at that particular time
god will only keep you and me in those
times of darkness until he’s
accomplished
his purpose in their life now if i don’t
know what the purpose is
it’s a lot more difficult to walk
through the darkness and especially the
time
goes and it’s on and on in its days and
weeks and months and years
it’s more difficult oftentimes for us to
put up with that and we say lord now
wait a minute
something you’ve not forgotten no and
once in a while i find myself
arguing with him a little bit and then
you know the truth is universal his face
is you can’t argue with god i mean
you can’t out argue god you can tell him
everything you want to tell him and
he’s probably saying i’ve heard that
before yes yes yes yes yes then when we
finish
he will tell us what he wants us to know
or he’ll be quiet
and let us listen let us get
under his will and his discipline and do
what he calls us to do
until he desires either to change that
circumstance or whatever it might be
he will only keep us there as long as is
necessary to do what
in order for us to learn what he wants
us to learn or for him to accomplish
what he wants us to accomplish now
next principle we’re always walking
toward the dawn of a new day when you
and i walk into the darkness
we’re always walking till the dawn of a
new day
now at the age of 17 it was dark
in that pit it was dark on their way
to egypt as a slave it was it was dark
on the slave block in egypt
it was dark in that prison for a long
time and it was dark probably
most all the time but you know what
the day someone said to joseph joseph
you to stand before pharaoh what
you to stand before pharaoh and pharaoh
said to him
you interpret this dream he interpreted
the dream to pharaoh and you know what
happened
all the darkness of 13 years
absolutely disappeared and the absolute
total
glory of god was all over him
and he lived to be 110 years of age
that meant for 80 years he lived
in egypt with pomp
and glory and honor and wealth
second only to the pharaoh now let me
ask you a question
do you think it was even a question in
his mind when somebody says
josie was
these 80 years of living in egypt
saving your family helping to save the
world was it was it worth 13 years in
prison
yes
yes i believe everybody who walks
through darkness
and comes out the other side and has
kept their focus on the lord god would
turn around and say
yes dark yes painful hurtful
trying difficult misunderstood yes
why because my friend god loves us
he’s always he’s always moving us toward
the dawn
and no matter where you are and what
you’re going through today
there is light listen there is a dawn
there is going to be a new day
god’s going to bring you through it no
matter what it may be tough right now
you think god how am i going to be able
to stand this he’s going to enable you
he will enable us and sometimes it’s a
day at a time
and somebody may say well how do you
stand this one day at a time
how do we live one day at a time the
just you live by faith how one day at a
time
and sometimes we get lots of hopes and
we can see the future gets brighter
and yet oftentimes in those dark times
it’s one day at a time
we learn more in the darkness but we’re
always moving toward the light
you see that’s why you don’t ever have
to give up if god has said here’s what
i’m going to do
you can rest your eternal life on the
fact
that god in all of this sovereign power
everything in heaven is behind the
promise of god
he will make it a living reality
no matter what you cannot stop god when
god says here’s what i’m going to do
now a conditional promise is here’s what
i’ll do if you do thus and so
but when god says here’s what i’m going
to do there’s no question about it
that is an unconditional promise of god
that cannot be
conditioned or altered by anything and i
could give you a number
of very personal experiences when god
says here’s what i’m going to do
it was totally irrational to me didn’t
fit anything
it was a struggle for me a big battle
for me to believe what i’d heard
but i’ll never forget getting in the
prayer room one day when i was really
struggling about something
it’s like the lord said to me now are
you going to believe
what you see what you feel
what you hear or what i said
and when i finally could come to the
conclusion to say god i’m going to
believe what you said
i can remember all hell broke loose
everything around me said you can’t
believe it what i heard what i
saw what i felt it’s like the lord would
say to me
you going to believe what i said are you
going to believe what you feel
what you see what you hear that’s why we
must learn to listen to god
and not question the word of the father
he will do what he promised to do and
you know what
that means that no matter what’s going
on how much darkness we walk through
there’s always light always light
out there somewhere god will bring us
through all of that one last thing and
one last principle here and that’s
simply this
and that is those things we learn
in the darkness we are to share in the
light
those things we learn in the darkness
with to share in the light
remember what jesus said in that 10th
chapter of matthew
10th chapter of matthew listen to what
he said speaking to his disciples and
certainly a message for all of us
he said in
verse 27 what i tell you in the darkness
speak in the light what you hear
whispered in your air
proclaim upon the housetops god wants us
to share
what he teaches us in the darkness those
difficult times
listen if you listen carefully you know
that one of the ways
that it establishes the truth and you
understand
even better what god has done in your
life is when you share it with someone
else
when you’re able to share with someone
else what god has taught you or what
he’s in the process of teaching you
it’s like god just entrenches it a
little deeper and a little deeper and a
little deeper
god is working in your life god is doing
a mighty work
and so he says what you he says what you
learn what i tell you in the darkness
that is
that when i tell you when you’re alone
you don’t understand what’s going on and
you can’t quite conceive of all the
things that happen what i tell you then
what i teach you then what i show you
then he says you’re to speak
in the light now i don’t know where you
are in your walk with the lord
i don’t know what kind of darkness is
covering you maybe financial darkness
relational darkness
family darkness all kinds of darkness
that we all have to deal with in life
i don’t know what it is but this much i
know
if you’re a child of god he’s with you
in it he has a purpose he’s only going
to allow you
in that darkness to accomplish his
purpose when it’s accomplished
he’ll bring you out of it if you will
listen carefully
and act wisely you’ll learn things in
the darkness you’re not going to learn
the other way
there is a light there is a dawn there
is a new day you’ll come
you can come out of it and you will come
out of it and not only that when you
come out
you should come out praising him
thanking him
declaring to others the greatness of god
the dependability of god the
faithfulness of god
the love of god to provide for you so
abundantly
you say well but suppose i’m not a
christian then my friend you’re walking
in darkness is something entirely
different
if you’re not a believer you’re walking
in darkness not only that
your heart’s dark you say well how do i
get light in my soul how do i get light
in my life here’s the way you do it
jesus said i am the light of the world
therefore if you want the light of truth
in your life you ask the lord jesus
christ to forgive you of your sins
and you tell him that you believe in his
forgiveness on the basis that he went to
calvin paid your sin debt in full
and that you’re receiving him as your
personal savior
and surrender your life to him in that
moment the light of the world
the eternal light of god what happens it
lights up in your heart
the holy spirit comes to dwell in you
and to live through you the life of
christ and then you have the privilege
of doing what you have the privilege of
trusting him
walking through the difficult times you
say well now now once i get saved when
everything change
your whole eternal destiny is going to
change your circumstances may remain the
same
well now becoming a christian does not
mean that god’s going to change
everything
no you may have to walk through some
very very dark days even after you’re
saved let’s say that you’re married to a
person who’s an unbeliever hates god
doesn’t want anything to do with
bible jesus god they’re going to be some
dark days
your parents may not be christian and
they don’t want you to even think about
being called in the lord’s service
dark days you may have been deeply
deeply in debt and just because you’re
saved doesn’t mean god’s going to get
you out of it he will
but not that quick maybe some dark days
just because you become a believer does
not mean that all the dark days are over
but here’s what it means
before in the darkness you were there
alone
you weren’t learning anything you
weren’t going anywhere you weren’t
prospering
you weren’t learning the great
principles of god you were floundering
in darkness
now god will take your same old
circumstance
the same old difficulty in hardships and
trials now he puts purpose in them
now god begins to work in your life now
he begins to grow you up
now he hedge in the direction of the
dawn of a new day
he will bring you through it but it
begins with trusting him
as your personal savior i want to
encourage you wherever you are
whatever you’re going through no matter
what if you’ve never trusted him just to
say lord jesus
i’ve blown it i’m walking in darkness my
life is full of sin
i am full of rebellion i’ve been trying
to have it my way i confess my sin to
you i ask you to forgive me
i’m trusting you as my savior i want the
light of christ in my life
i want to walk in your way even if it’s
through dark periods
i must know that you’re there with me
and you have a purpose in it
and he will
or you may be a believer and you’re
walking through a very dark time after
the first service several people said to
me
you talked right to me this morning i’m
walking through one of those dark times
well my friend listen if you’ll just
take these simple principles they’re so
simple
but they’re all powerful he’s with you
has a purpose the purpose is over he
brings you out
you learn a whole lot more in the dark
than you do in the light
god in his wonder what will he do hedge
in the direction
of the dawn of a new day you know what
happened he’ll give you the privilege
of sharing in the light these awesome
things
he teaches you in the dark and father
how grateful we are
that you love us and that your love for
us is unconditional
and that you don’t react to us you
understand our weakness and our
frailties and our doubts and our fears
in the darkness
you’re still there and i pray that those
who have heard this message
that the spirit of god will sink it so
deep
wrap it around their heart tightly
that it may begin to work in their soul
their spirit in their heart
so that jesus who is the light of the
world
[Music]
becomes the light of their life and
father for all of your saints
who are going through darkness just
bring them
to the realization that you are a loving
gentle father they don’t even realize it
you have them by the hand you’re leading
them
through the darkness we love you and
praise you for being that kind of father
in jesus name
[Music]
amen