TOPIC:‌"When Life Falls Apart - Then What?"

 

TEXT:‌II Timothy 2:3-10

 

"Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my Gospel" (II Timothy 2:8).

 

Two of my favorite Sunday School teachers as a young boy were Gerrit and Minnie Miedema. This married couple were very much in love. Being dedicated Christians they faithfully and joyfully served their precious Lord. Individually they both had beautiful singing voices, but when they sang together there was something which made you feel you were in the presence of God. Then many years later Minnie unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. It was a shattering blow to this devastated husband. I remember him saying to me, "Reggie, I don't want to live any longer."

 

Now life can treat us like that. Nobody lives long in this world without discovering that sooner or later life shockingly and suddenly can fall apart. It can come to such a dead end that everything seems bleak and black and hopeless. Such was the experience that came to those early disciples of Jesus after His death. When something like that happens to us, then what? What can we do? The answer on this Easter Sunday is found on the pages of the New Testament.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, to begin with, those SHATTERING EVENTS which cause our lives to fall apart. Let me mention a few of them.

 

‌Sometimes life falls apart because of a DEVASTATING ILLNESS. Never shall I forget the day when my grandmother was told that Newell her son had cancer. Upon hearing that word "cancer" everything in her world seemed to stop. Her life lost its meaningfulness. She was never the same again. Life can do that when tragedy strikes us or a loved one.

 

‌But if it is not a devastating illness, life may fall apart because of MORAL FAILURE. This has happened to many of us. I remember holding special meetings in Hastings, Minnesota many years ago when I noticed a young woman who was deeply moved each night by the service. Her cheeks were wet with tears as she listened to the messages, but still she refused to respond to the invitation. It wasn't until I received a personal letter from her the following week that I realized for the first time what she was going through. Becoming pregnant outside of marriage there in that small town had caused her teenage boyfriend to commit suicide. This haunting memory of failure seared her conscience and its shattering effect caused her life to fall apart.

 

‌Or life may fall apart because of a DESTRUCTIVE UNFAITHFULNESS. A wife with ravaging suddenness discovers that her husband has been secretly cheating on her. A husband shockingly discovers that his wife has been unfaithful to him. A son or a daughter who has turned their back on the moral teachings of . . .