Dharius Daniels - Can God Trust You with Trouble?

God recommended Job, saying, «Did you hear what I just said? Job, why?» Because it is an indication that God trusted Job to manage that season properly. And He says, «What I’m going to do on the back end of this season is going to be so amazing; it’s going to make up for what you lost in the middle of this season.» Why am I going through this? He trusts you. Why is my heart broken? He trusts you. Why is this happening to me? He trusts you because He knows the average person would stay in that tomb, but He knows the buoyancy on the inside of you. He says, «I have not survived everything I survived to succumb to this.» Let me see if I have any old-school churchgoers here. I don’t feel no ways tired; I’ve come too far from where I started. Nobody had told me that the road would be easy, but I don’t believe He’s brought me this far for nothing. Your unusual recovery, I can say, I believe God’s going to give you that with confidence. I can say that with confidence because I saw something in the text. Marlon, I saw that your unusual recovery isn’t for you; it’s for Thomas. There are some Thomases in your life who are going to have to bounce back from some of the same things from which you bounced back. And God wants to use your life as evidence and as an example that bouncing back from these things is possible. Now, you told God to use you. Let me go to this. Come on, you asked God to use you. You said, «If you can use anything, Lord, you can use me.» And when we ask God to use us, what we are really asking Him to do is use my gifts. But God says, «Sometimes I’m not going to use your gifts. Sometimes I’m going to use your life. Sometimes I’m going to let you go in a grave and stay there three days, and I’m going to raise you back up so that everybody who saw you go in has to watch you come out as evidence of what I can do.» I’ve got to go; y’all tired? Here it is. God can’t trust everybody with tombs. The highest form of trust is when He can trust you with trouble. So I trust you to go in there and not stay. Yes, I trust that there’s something. Y’all are not talking to me; I can back.

This is the theological premise and foundation for the book of Job. God recommended Job. Did you hear what I just said? God said, «Job, why?» Because it indicates that God trusted Job to manage that season properly. He says, «What I’m going to do on the back end of this season is going to be so amazing; it’s going to make up for what you lost in the middle of this season.» While I’m going through this, He trusts you. Why is my heart broken? He trusts you. Why is this happening to me? He trusts you because He knows the average person would stay in that tomb. But He knows the buoyancy on the inside of you. It says, «I have not survived everything I survived to succumb to this.» Let me see if I have any old-school churchgoers here. I don’t feel no ways tired; I’ve come too far from where I started. Nobody told me that the road would be easy, but I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me. I trust you because I need people that I can use as an example—not just of what’s possible with your gifts, but as an example of what’s possible with your life. You can bounce back, and that’s what Jesus did. He bounced back. He didn’t just reveal to us that we could bounce back; He revealed what we can bounce back from. Because if you’re going to try to optimize, you have to understand what I’m teaching you today: buoyancy is non-negotiable. That’s so good! It’s a life skill you must have if you’re going to optimize. You will have setbacks, and if you do not develop this life skill, you will make a state out of what God intended to be a stage. You will settle for the wilderness when you’ve been created for Canaan because you didn’t recover. So, you think everything’s going to be on the up and up in business? You think you’re never going to have a setback? You think everything’s going to be up and up in marriage? You think everything’s going to be up and up in parenting? You think everything’s going to be up and up in your career? It’s not a rocket ship; it’s a roller coaster. But can you recover? Can you reframe rejection and say, «This is not rejection; this is direction»? This is a life skill, and I’m speaking to somebody right now who feels like you are in a tomb. You feel like a dream is dying, a vision is dying because you’ve had a setback, not realizing that Easter is a revelation that setbacks are setups for comebacks. If you develop buoyancy, you’re going to have to bounce back. If Jesus did, you’re going to have to bounce back too; you’re going to have to bounce back from betrayal.

That’s what Jesus had to bounce back from. Betrayal is uniquely painful because it is illogical. Jesus was a perfect man; He always did what was perfect, said what was perfect, and felt what was perfect, yet He still dealt with a Judas. Your character doesn’t change Judas’s character. But Jesus looked at the man who was going to betray Him and said, «Whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly.» In other words, I am so convinced that God has me covered; I won’t even try to talk you out of what you’re going to do. Your betrayal doesn’t block my blessing. Say what you want. You think you can ruin my reputation, but if God has something for me, you can only tarnish my reputation in the minds of people who don’t matter. Did you hear what I just said? Some of you are worried about what people who don’t matter for your destiny think of you. God does not give you favor with everybody you want it with; He gives you favor with everyone you need it with. So if you don’t have favor with them, God won’t use them to accomplish what He wants to do in your life. You have to bounce back because God will never place your destiny in the hands of a Judas. God says, «You think they have that much power to ruin you, but you know who I am.» You must recover from betrayal because, if not, you’ll be so bitter at Judas that you won’t minister to the thief while you are hanging on the cross. The pain you experienced in your past isn’t solely about your past; it’s about your future. He wants to use Judas to make you jaded. You have to recover; you have to heal from betrayal. You have to recover from beatings. Jesus was beaten, and life will throw some unexpected blows at you. There will be blows you didn’t see coming. Some of you will find something on a phone that you didn’t see coming; you will receive a phone call you didn’t see coming, or you will get a diagnosis you didn’t see coming. It’s a blow. But I was watching a movie a long time ago that you all are too young to remember; it’s called *Necessary Roughness*. It was about this football team, and a guy got hit. The coach walked over to him and asked, «Are you hurt, or are you injured?» The player replied, «What’s the difference?» The coach said, «If you’re hurt, you can still play.» God says you’re hurt, but because I am a healer, I will ensure it doesn’t injure you. Does that make sense? Sometimes you think, «Oh my God, I’m so hurt.» It’s just our ego that is hurt because God is saying, «This has no bearing on what I will do in your life.» And I’m done. Here’s number three: Are you ready for it? You have to bounce back from burials. Have you ever felt like you or something was being buried? I know some of you win all the time, but have you ever been in a season where you felt like you’re not winning right now? The people came to the tomb looking for Jesus in the last place they saw Him, and the angels said, «Why are you looking for the living among the dead?» This is the first miracle we can celebrate because Jesus wasn’t there. Every other time there was a miracle, it was because He was there; this time, it was a miracle because He wasn’t there. Sometimes the miracle in your life is that you are no longer where others are who’ve been through what you’ve been through. Why seek the living among the dead? I’m not there anymore. God says, «I want to change your condition. I want to raise you out of everything that’s burying you.» And I’m done. Here’s recovery, though. In the Bible, when God recovers or restores, He never gives you back what you lost. The Bible doesn’t define terms; it describes terms using biblical characters. So when Joseph experienced recovery, he didn’t get back what he lost; when Job experienced recovery, he didn’t get back what he lost. When Jesus experienced recovery, He didn’t get back what He lost. Recovery doesn’t mean God gives you back what you lost; it means God gives you back more. Job received double, and He’ll do it for you. But here’s my prayer for you: Can I pray this over you? Yes. I said, can I pray this over you? Yes. Here’s my prayer for you: I pray that you have the buoyancy to endure your Saturday seasons. Sunday is coming, but you must survive your Saturday seasons that God gives you. Sometimes your strategy—what’s my strategy? —is simply not to quit. I wouldn’t be in this room today, and neither would you, if I had quit. Sometimes the strategy is just not to quit. I will pray that God helps you with that. If you need that prayer, say yes.