Stop The Ride I Want Off!

 

If you hang around the rides at either an amusement park or county fair, you will eventually hear someone yelling or even screaming “Stop The Ride I Want To Get Off!”

 

In preparation for today’s message, I researched amusement parks and the accidents that happen occasionally at them for some examples to share with you, but found that these were too many and too horrific to mention here today.

 

• Although they are rare, the fact is accidents happen at these places.

 

• More importantly, people fear these rides either because of the actual ride itself, or the fact that one is scared that something is going to go wrong with the ride.

 

• But at some point it’s common to hear someone yell, “Stop the ride I want to get off!”

 

I wonder if you’ve ever felt that way about life?

• Or your job.
• Or your marriage.
• Or your relationship with a friend
• Or your kids
• Or whatever…

 

It all started out well,

• Like the amusement park ride, it all started out with the anticipation of excitement and fun.
• Marriage sounded like a good idea.
• That person seemed like just the right person.
• The job sounded like it would meet your needs and could even take you someplace corporately.
• The decision you were making at the time seemed like the right decision to make.
• You thought it would all work out.
• You thought it was the best thing to do.

 

But then it all got started.

• Then the guy pulled the lever and for a short amount of time, it seemed like it wasn’t going to be such a bad deal.
• Then the ride started going in circles.
• And then it starts going in circles faster and faster
• And at some point panic sets in and fear causes you to cry out Stop The Ride, I Want To Get Off!”

 

But we’re not talking about an amusement park here are we.

• We’re really not talking about some ride at the fair.

 

• But what we are talking about is something called, “Life.”

 

• What we are talking about are the consequences of the choices we make.

 

• What we are talking about is the bad stuff that comes along when we thought we should have had good stuff.

 

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if a person could just simple say, “Stop the ride I want to get off.”… And they could.

 

• But the ride called life doesn’t always stop does it?

 

• The problem for us much of the time is, Life does not stop.
• Decisions that have already been made cause us to go through situations and problems that we never thought we would have to face or go through.

 

What do you do when you want off of the ride, but the ride is not stopping?

 

• What do you do when it seems like you just can’t take any more.

 

• What do you do when you just want the whole thing to slow down and stop so you can get off, but it doesn’t and it can’t. stop.

 

• Well, first I want you to know that you are not alone.

 

• It’s important for you to understand that what you are going through, although unique in it’s exact circumstances, is not unlike much of what other people are going through even here today.

 

• We’ve all been there.

 

• Some of us are there right now.

 

• Stuff happens that we did not sign up for doesn’t it.

 

But now what?

• Here we are…
• We’re on the ride of our life and it seems like we are not going to make it, … but guess what, we do.

 

• Somehow people make it.
• Some how the ride ends and everybody is ok,
• They are dizzier perhaps.
• Perhaps even nauseated.

 

• They may be sick for a while.

 

• But by the grace of God, they make it.

 

I’ve been in the church long enough to see some bad stuff happen to some really good people.

 

• I’ve watched some really sweet people go through some things that scared me to death.

 

• But amazingly they make it through.

 

• You see God is an ever present help in a time of need.

 

Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

 

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The psalmist, King David understood what it felt like to have trouble near with no help on the horizon.

• He said to God…

 

Psalm 22:11 (KJV)

11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

 

 

Isn’t this the worst part of having trouble in your life?

 

• We could probably handle the situation if we could just understand that help was coming – right?

 

• David understood this feeling too. He said, “For there is none to help.”

 

• But If David could have seen all that God was doing on his behalf at that moment of his life, he probably never would have said, “There is none to help.”

 

• Hebrews told us that our God is a Help in a time of Need.

 

Look what Proverbs tells us about our God…

 

Proverbs 18:24
… and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

 

• I want you to know today that you have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother or a sister.
• You have a friend in Jesus that you can talk to anytime day or night.

 

• I implore you, the next time you find yourself laying in bed unable to sleep because of all the worries and problems of your life – begin to talk to your friend.
• Begin to talk to Jesus.
• Tell him all about your troubles.
• He will not only hear your hearts cry, but he will also give you peace to be able to sleep that night.

 

• I’ll be honest with you, there are times when I find it hard to sleep.
• Sometimes there is so much going on in my life that I struggle to find a bit of peace where I can just go to sleep.

 

• When that time comes, I begin to pray.
• I begin to talk to the only one who can heal my situation.
• I share it all with the one who is the only one who can help.

 

• And it’s not long before I find myself asleep.

 

Jeremiah 6:16

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

 

• That’s what we need today isn’t it?
• That’s what we are looking for today.

 

• If I could just find rest.
• If I could just find some peace in my life.
• If somehow the storms of my life would just calm down for a few minutes….
• I could sleep at night.
• I could be happy for a moment
• I could enjoy this thing called walking with God.

 

Psalm 73:28
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

 

• There is a reason we are tested.
• There is a reason we go through things
• There is a reason for the ride.
• These things cause us to trust God.
• These things cause us to draw near to Him.

 

• There is a purpose for your problem.
• There is a cause for your trouble.

 

• Without these things we would be self sufficient
• Without these things we would have no need of Him
• Without these things we would never learn to trust Him.

 

• These things teach us to pray.
• These things teach us to have faith.
• These things teach us to trust.

 

• They give us a reason to have a God.
• If I didn’t need God, then I would not have God.

 

• I have God because I need God.

 

The answer to your problem today is not to get off the ride.

• The answer to your problem is learning to lean on Him.
• The answer to your problem is learning to trust Him for your deliverance.

 

I said it last week “Have Faith In God.”

 

• Those are not my words, those are Jesus words…

 

Mark 11: 22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

 

Vs 22 say to have faith…

Then vs 23 says to begin go talk to some things…

 

• “Be thou removed”
• “Situation, Be Changed”
• “Problems, be gone.”

 

Personal Illustration:  20 years ago.

1. Business falling apart.
2. Christmas time – no money.
3. Family problems.

 

I can’t tell you how huge these problems seemed to me at the time.

 

• These 3 problems seemed insurmountable.

 

• I went to that altar on that Sunday night and told God about all three of those problems.
• I laid them on that altar.
• I let Him know that He was going to have to help if these things were going to work out.

 

I want you to know that all 3 of these situations worked out by the end of the next day.

 

• I had more work than I could do…
• I had $1,000.00 in my pocket for Christmas presents.
• And the family problems all took care of themselves.

 

 

I don’t want to stop the ride.

• I don’t want to get off.

 

• I’m finding that this ride is a blast when you’ve got Jesus as a friend.

 

• I’m finding that all the tests and troubles and problems seem a whole lot easier when you’ve got someone like Him to talk to about them.

 

I see those 3 Hebrew children in the fiery furnace this morning – but look there’s someone else in there – “They said He was like unto the Son of Man.”

 

I see Peter and John beaten and cast into the innermost part of the prison, but they’ve got a secret up their sleeve.  They’ve got praise in the midnight hour.

 

• That old jailhouse is about to fall to the ground, Why?
• Because somebody’s not looking at their circumstances, somebody’s looking to Jesus.