Rev. David Holwick I
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 9, 2003
Acts 28:1-7
DOES TROUBLE COME IN THREES?
I. Why me?
A. When the DMV gets it just right.
Patti Stasilli was having a terrible day.
Nothing was going right.
After waiting in the DMV, they issue her new license plates:
They begin with the letter, "YME".
B. Troubles seem to come in groups. (Traditionally, groups of 3)
In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt
on the world flagpole-sitting record.
Suffering from the flu he came down eight hours short of
the 400-day record.
His sponsor had gone bankrupt, his girlfriend had left him
and his phone and electricity had been cut off.
Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn't pay enough postage
on a letter bomb.
It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it.
Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to
bits. #6420
Turns out both stories are urban legends (the terrorist one
is very similar to a Wile E. Coyote cartoon).
But we can still relate to them.
Who hasn't felt like life has blown up in their face?
C. For misfortune, it is hard to beat the Apostle Paul. Acts 28
1) In his career he has been stoned, beaten and starved.
2) He is arrested for being subversive, upsetting peace.
3) He appeals his sentence and is shipped to Rome in chains.
4) Along the way, his ship sinks.
5) He makes it to shore (Malta) and a poisonous snake bites
him.
D. Why do some have it so bad?
1) (This question was submitted on a pew card.)
2) There can be a variety of reasons.
II. Bad luck can be undeserved.
A. Disasters can happen to nice people, no fault of their own.
Frank 'Lucks' Tower was a stoker on the "Titanic."
Amazingly, when she sank he survived.
Two years later, he was aboard the "Empress of Ireland" when
it collided with another ship.
Over 2,000 lives where lost - yet miraculously, Tower
survived, virtually alone.
He took his next job aboard the "Lusitania," which was sunk
by German U-boats in 1915.
Tower was heard to shout "Now what!" when the torpedo
stuck.
He swam to a lifeboat, vowing every stroke of the way to
take up farming.
Tower's story later inspired a TV script entitled "Lone
Survivor," which paved the way for a series.
The writer: Rod Serling.
The series: "The Twilight Zone." #22686
B. The supreme Bible example - Job.
1) He is innocent, yet he suffers.
2) However, you cannot say he had bad luck.
a) Ulterior forces were at work.
3) You can argue that biblically, luck doesn't exist.
a) Proverbs 16:33 - "The lot is cast into the lap, but
its every decision is from the LORD."
b) Consider that when you drive by Atlantic City...
III. Oppression by Satan.
A. The Bible says he is a real character, and out to harm us.
1) Satan is the immediate "ulterior force" that Job faced.
2) Bad things often happen after we become Christian.
a) Typical comment: Satan is ticked off at you.
B. Satan has power, but it is limited.
1) Don't blame him for everything that goes wrong.
IV. Oppression by God?
A. We can feel that God himself is out to get us.
1) Job felt this way, and he was essentially correct.
2) God does not tempt us to make us fall, but he will test
us to make us strong.
a) God always has a beneficial objection in mind.
b) He is not out to destroy us though it can seem that way.
B. Even Jesus faced temptation.
1) The difference: he passed every test, we don't.
2) Question to ask: "Is God trying to give me a message here?"
V. Jinxed by our own faults.
A. Many of our troubles are due to our own stupid choices.
1) Outright sins.
2) Lousy priorities and habits. (Money, pleasures...)
Edward Blaine, 61, who served 20 years in prison for a 1963
bank robbery, apparently is becoming even less competent.
In January he was arrested and charged with robbing the
Union Bank & Trust branch in Port Royal, Virginia.
Police said Blaine fled with the stash while $100 bills were
falling out of his pockets.
Then he realized as he arrived at his getaway car that he
had locked the keys inside.
He grabbed a log to smash the window but tossed it away in
frustration, only to have it hit Emmett Lowe's truck.
This angered Lowe, who grabbed a gun and chased Blaine for
150 yards.
In a struggle, Blaine shot at Lowe but hit himself in the
leg, just before Lowe shot Blaine in the same leg.
#22603
Edward Blaine doesn't have to blame God or Satan.
He can take all the blame on his own shoulders.
B. Measure your life and attitudes against the Bible's commands.
1) If your habits or actions are having negative effects,
turn away from them.
C. Even good actions can be tripped up by lousy attitudes.
1) Some people have more troubles than others because they
set themselves up for it.
2) This could be the wisdom behind the saying, "troubles always
come in threes."
a) After two tough situations, we fully expect a third
to happen, so it does.
b) Expectations of disaster can produce disaster.
VI. Have an overcoming attitude.
A. However bad it gets, God can turn it around.
1) Paul becomes a prisoner, then is shipwrecked, then bitten.
2) He shakes it off and moves on in life.
A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule who
accidentally fell into an open well shaft.
After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer decided
neither the mule nor the well was worth saving.
So, he called his neighbors together to help haul dirt to
bury the old mule in the well.
At first, the mule was hysterical.
But then it occurred to him that every time a shovel of dirt
hit his back he could shake it off and step up.
So, he did - shovel full after shovel full.
"Shake it off; step up," he repeated to himself.
"Shake it off; step up."
It wasn't long before the old mule stepped triumphantly over
the top to safety.
The dirt he thought would bury him turned out to be a
blessing.
You can have the same attitude. #5006
B. The worse it gets, the more I can grow.
1) Troubles make great opportunities to develop our souls.
a) Hardships focus your soul, make you tougher.
2) The greatest human accomplishments have pressed them
beyond their expected limits.
a) Don't run away from it, embrace it.
C. No matter how bad it is, someone else is worse off.
1) Don't blow your troubles out of proportion.
2) Always keep it in perspective.
a) Right now there are Baptists rotting in dungeons.
b) The fact that you owe $7,000 in taxes pales in
comparison!
D. No matter how bad it is, I have much to be thankful for.
In his book of sermons "The Living Faith," Lloyd C. Douglas
tells the story of Thomas Hearne.
Hearne was a pioneer on the American frontier.
On one expedition into the wilderness, at the mouth of the
Coppermine River, a party of Indians stole most of their
supplies.
His comment on the apparent misfortune was:
"The weight of our baggage being so much lightened,
our next day's journey was more swift and pleasant."
Hearne was on to something important here.
The loss of a few sides of bacon and a couple of bags of
flour meant nothing more than an easing of the load.
Had Hearne been holed in somewhere, in a cabin, resolved
to spend his last days eking out an existence, the loss
of some of his stores by plunder would probably have
worried him almost to death.
#1889
VII. Troubles are only temporary.
A. Every bad time eventually ends.
1) (My first boy scout campout - starving and freezing.
I console myself with the thought that no memory could
be this bad.)
B. There is no trouble in heaven.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ...
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
C. Put your confidence in God.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1889 "A Pioneer's Positive Attitude," by Eugene L. Feagin of Sharon,
South Carolina, in Leadership Magazine, Fall 1989, page 51.
Holwick's Database.
# 5006 "Shake It Off And Step Up," by Skai Rusis in Laughlines at
http:/www.laughlines.com; quoted by Rev. John Gillmartin in
Sermon-Illustrations-Each-Week (SIEW), November 28, 1999.
# 6420 "Think YOU'VE had a bad day?" anonymous author, received by
email on January 1, 1999.
#22603 "A Dumb Bank Robber," by Chuck Shepherd in News of the Weird,
January 17, 2003; originally from The Washington Times.
#22686 "He Survived - Three Times," anonymous author, in Weird News,
May 27, 2002. Subsequent research suggests this story is also
an urban legend. Charles Pellegrino writes: On Frank "Lucks"
Tower, note that in my Afterword I refer to him as
representing either one of history's most extraordinary tales
of coincidence and survival, or one of its most remarkable
liars. The case now seems to be the latter. Writers
supporting Tower's tale have pointed me to a "primary source,"
a woman claiming to be Tower's granddaughter. When I spoke
with her she turned out to have known Big Foot on a first name
basis and to be a member of the U.F.O. Frequent Flight Program
- from which we might conclude that anything she has to say
about the Titanic is a tad suspect.
[http://www.hallhistory.com/historical_study/151.shtml]
Also, a Titanic fact-or-fiction webpage says "NO person by the
name of Frank Tower appears in any crew lists for those three
vessels."
[http://www.rmstitanic.co.uk/titanic_titanic_-_myths.shtml]
These and 23,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://illust.holwick.com
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