Hidden Riches: Discovering Treasure in Life's Darkest Moments

Afraid of the Dark

Imagine yourself standing in a pitch-black room.

You stretch out your hand but see nothing.

Your ears strain for sounds.

Your heart thumps a little faster.

That’s what happened to me one Sunday night when I was a teenager.

One Youth Fellowship we decided to go into the Main Hall at Norwich Citadel.

It’s a huge place.

An old ballroom - over 150 years old.

Lots of shadows and dark places.

Full of ghost stories.

And my friends decided it was a great idea to turn out all the light on me and run out.

I have never moved so fast in my life!

There’s something about darkness that makes us uneasy.

As we come to the end of our series, I want to acknowledge again that some of us have been standing in that kind of darkness in life - confused, frightened, uncertain.

The darkness of grief, depression, mental health issues, physical health issues for ourselves or for those we love, changes in family circumstances, uncertainty at work, and so much more.

And first of all, I want to say thank you.

Thanks for sticking with this series.

I appreciate it’s painful to tackle these issues.

We feel vulnerable in admitting that sometimes life and faith is hard.

I deliberately chose to make this series only three weeks long because I knew it would be painful for some of us.

But I would not be your pastor if I wasn’t prepared to gently and hopefully sensitively confront you with the realities of life and how our faith speaks into them.

If we are going to mature as Christians, then we have to be willing to admit that there are times when life can feel very dark, and that we’re afraid of the dark.

There are times in our lives when it feels like God is missing in action. David:

2 Samuel 22:12 NLT

He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dense rain clouds.

There are times when we feel God has put things in our way and we can’t get past them. Job:

Job 19:8 NLT

God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.

But today we are reminded that there is always hope because God can bring something good out of the darkness we find ourselves in:

Isaiah 45:1-3

Isaiah 45:1–3 NLT

This is what the Lord says to Cyrus, his anointed one, whose right hand he will empower. Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear. Their fortress gates will be opened, never to shut again. This is what the Lord says: “I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains. I will smash down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

MESSAGE NOTES

Context

The message I want you to hear today is this: We worship a God who will give us treasures hidden in our darkness.

But we need to put these verses in context

The Israelites are in captivity.

They have been removed from Jerusalem and its surroundings and taken to Babylon.

And through his prophet Isaiah, God tells the Israelites that he is going to use a Gentile, non-Jewish King, Cyrus the Great, to deliver them from their captivity and free them from Babylon and allow them to go home.

Isaiah says that as a result, Cyrus is going to be very rich.

That he’s going to find treasures hidden in the darkness.

That he’s going to find secret riches so that Cyrus would know that God is indeed God and that the God of Israel was the one who was talking to him.

And that’s exactly what happened.

We have historical accounts that tell us Cyrus did free the Israelites from Babylonian captivity.

He did find hidden riches.

Treasure that the Jews had buried before they were led away into captivity.

Jewels, gold, anything that was valuable to them.

Cyrus found them dug them up, became very rich, and as a result, fulfilled the call that God had on his life.

But before all of that takes place, God speaks to Cyrus through Isaiah

And in these verses, he says three things to him:

I am the Lord

This section of Isaiah is framed by God’s claim that he has final responsibility of everything that happens to us:

Isaiah 44:24 NLT

This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer and Creator: “I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. Who was with me when I made the earth?

Isaiah 45:7 NLT

I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.

The whole of creation belongs to God.

He was the One who stretched out the heavens.

He was the One who made the earth.

And as Creator, he is free to interrupt the processes of history, and to bend events any way he wants them to go.

He can use any situation - good or bad, light or darkness - to bring about his purposes.

He can even use a King who doesn’t even believe in him to save his people and free them from captivity!

And he says to this foreign, unbelieving King:

Isaiah 45:3 NLT

And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

Some of you have that story to tell, don’t you?

Those times when you found yourself in utter darkness.

When you felt you couldn’t escape and there didn’t seem to be anyone coming to rescue you.

That nothing was going to bail you out of the financial mess you found yourself in.

That nothing was going to save the relationship that was breaking.

That you were never going to heal.

That your grief was simply going to consume you.

And then God moved in.

And he did something huge in your life.

He intervened and your hope was restored.

What you thought was hopeless and would never change, suddenly changed.

Why?

Because God is God and he can do it!

If God is sovereign - and we believe he is - then all of history is his plan.

Everything that happens to us - good and bad, light and dark - have one ultimate cause, fit into one great purpose, and we will finally understand them in one final victory.

We might not understand the darkness we’re going through.

We can’t box God in.

We can’t fit him and his ways into our human understanding.

It means we have to live with the mystery.

We have to make way for the improbable ways of God.

But if God is really the King of everything, then we have to lean into believing that he can use the darkness in our lives as well as the light.

The second message is that God will be close to us in our darkness

Isaiah 45:3 NLT

And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

God says he call us by name.

That’s a God who is near, close by.

There is nothing more personal to us than our names.

One of the first things I do when I arrive in a new appointment is to try and learn people’s names.

I do that by using them often - overusing them often - so that they stick in my mind.

Why?

Because calling someone by their name is personal, it’s intimate.

It begins to build the relationship that’s needed between a pastor and his flock.

And these verses remind us that our Creator, the God who created the heavens and the earth, who is sovereign over light and darkness, good and bad, this huge, majestic, mighty, transcendent God is intimate with us.

He is close to us.

He is near to us.

He knows us by our names.

He knows my name

He knows my every thought

He sees each tear that falls

And hears me when I call

Tommy Walker

© 1996 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Songs

This God who made the universe, everything we see around us.

This God who puts the very breath in our lungs.

This God who flung stars into space.

He knows my name.

Paul:

Acts 17:27 NLT

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.

Even in the darkness, he is not far from us.

He is Immanuel, God with us.

We can reach out to him, and find his blessings in the mess, find his joys even in our sorrow.

Because the third message Isaiah gives us here is that because God is God, and because he is close to us, he can and will give us treasure hidden in darkness

Those blessings we receive in the messes of our lives - in those dark times of grief, brokenness, depression, anxiety, and worry - they are gold.

They are treasure.

They are secret riches.

Think back to the unexpected good things that have happened in the darkest part of your life.

Think of the light that suddenly occurs in the middle of the deepest darkness.

And often these hidden treasures, secret riches, come to us through other people.

There is a story about three farmers whose fields joined each other’s.

One was Jewish, one Muslim, and one Christian.

Each observed the Sabbath on a different day of the week.

One harvest season, bad weather limited the days available for work.

Skipping a day for Sabbath observance risked financial ruin.

Nevertheless, all three farmers in turn observed their faith, making the choice to stay home on their respective Sabbaths.

When they woke the next day, each farmer found a barn filled with harvested crops.

They gave thanks and praise to God, assuming angels had been sent to do the work.

But of course, it was their neighbours of differing faiths who did the work in secret.

God uses other people to minister to us in our darkness.

He used the King of Persia to release the Israelites from their captivity.

In your darkness, he may use someone who has suffered in a similar way to you, to help you take the next step our of your darkness.

It might be that person who’s just such a good listener.

Someone who seems to know just when you need a phone call or a text.

Someone who provides a meal just when you need it because you don’t feel like cooking yourself.

I thank God that no one here needs to face their darkness alone.

I thank God that we have a corps family who will face the darkness together.

I thank God that this corps family is full of people who are willing to express compassion.

Those who are willing to offer their presence.

Those who are willing to shoulder the pain of others.

And for everyone listening to this message - those in the Hall and those online - whenever you hear this message - I pray that there will be someone who will come alongside you, and serve you.

That they will be the hidden treasure - the secret riches - in your darkness.

That is the best way we can serve each other in the Body of Christ.

So, as you look to grow through what you’re going through, I pray that you will choose to find the treasure in the darkness

That you will be open to the good possibilities in the bad situations you face in life.

That even in deep pain you will seek the secret riches God has for you.

I pray that we will choose to see that God is the One who is above it all.

But that even in his might and power, he is close to us in our darkness.

Isaiah 50:10 NLT

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.

I pray that even in the darkness, we will trust in the Lord.

That in your grief, you will trust in him.

That in your depression, you will trust in him.

That in your anxiety, you will trust in him.

That in your confusion, you will trust in him.

That when you just can’t sleep at night, you will trust in him.

That when you find the darkness overwhelming and overpowering, you will trust in him.

He knows your name.

And he wants you to grow through what you’re going through.

Video: He Knows My Name

Video: He Knows My Name | 4:00

He Knows My Name

Verse 1

I have a Maker

He formed my heart

Before even time began

My life was in His hand

Chorus

He knows my name

He knows my every thought

He sees each tear that falls

And hears me when I call

Verse 2

I have a Father

He calls me His own

He'll never leave me

No matter where I go

Tommy Walker

CCLI Song #2151368

© 1996 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Songs

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com