Speaker 1: One of the most perplexing questions that people ask is
Speaker 1: why is there pain in the world? And why does
Speaker 1: a good God allow pain? You know, it's not a
Speaker 1: new question. Thousands of years ago, Solomon asked this question
Speaker 1: in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. In Ecclesiastes,
Speaker 1: Chapter two, verses twenty two and twenty three, he says this,
Speaker 1: so what do people get for all their hard work
Speaker 1: and their struggles here on earth? Their entire life is
Speaker 1: filled with pain, and their work is unbearable, and even
Speaker 1: at night their minds don't rest. It all seems so pointless. Now,
Speaker 1: many scientific studies have documented that human beings are able
Speaker 1: to handle enormous amounts of pain if if if we
Speaker 1: know there's a good purpose for that pain. You see,
Speaker 1: it's worthless pain, it's arbitrary pain. It's pain that feels pointless,
Speaker 1: pain without any purpose. That's the kind of pain that
Speaker 1: is so unbearable and so intolerable. When you see a
Speaker 1: purpose behind pain, you can handle enormous amounts of it.
Speaker 1: For instance, many of you women have given birth to
Speaker 1: a child. Giving birth is painful, but women bear that
Speaker 1: pain for a great purpose. They bring forth life. Pain
Speaker 1: with a purpose is manageable. Pain without a purpose is unmanageable.
Speaker 1: No matter what kind of pain you're going through right now,
Speaker 1: or no matter what kind of pain you're going to
Speaker 1: go through in the future. It may be physical pain,
Speaker 1: it may be emotional pain, it may be spiritual pain.
Speaker 1: It may be financial or relational or mental mental pain.
Speaker 1: You will be far better prepared to handle pain. You'll
Speaker 1: be far better prepared to cope with it if you
Speaker 1: focus on the potential benefits and the possible purposes of
Speaker 1: that pain. I know somebody saying, well, okay, where do
Speaker 1: I get the courage and truth to focus on when
Speaker 1: I'm in deep pain? Well, the answer is the Bible.
Speaker 1: The Bible, the Book of God's Holy Word, is where
Speaker 1: you focus to get the purposes and the potentials and
Speaker 1: the promises of God. They're all in the Bible to
Speaker 1: help you handle the pain that's in life. Romans eight
Speaker 1: twenty eight says this, we know that in all things
Speaker 1: God works for the good of those who love Him,
Speaker 1: who have been called according to His purpose. Now look
Speaker 1: at that verse for just a minute. We know that
Speaker 1: in all things God works for the good. It doesn't
Speaker 1: say all things are good. Obviously, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: bad things in the world, and so not everything that
Speaker 1: happens in your life is good, And you shouldn't even
Speaker 1: act like everything that happens in your life is good.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of bad things that happen to you
Speaker 1: and other people because there is evil, there is sin
Speaker 1: in the world. But the Bible says, we know that
Speaker 1: in all things God is working for the good of
Speaker 1: those who love him. Now, this is not a promise
Speaker 1: for everybody. It's only a promise for those who love Him,
Speaker 1: who've been called according to his purpose. But if you
Speaker 1: love God and if you're trying to live according to
Speaker 1: his purpose, the Bible says God is working in all things,
Speaker 1: even the bad things, the evil things, the terrible things,
Speaker 1: the sinful things, the painful things of life. God says I,
Speaker 1: and I'm working even in all those things for your good.
Speaker 1: What is this verse teaching us. It's telling us that
Speaker 1: pain can be managed by purpose and on purpose, and
Speaker 1: for a purpose. Everybody has problems, but some people profit
Speaker 1: from them and some don't. They don't know how to
Speaker 1: learn from their losses. Everybody has losses, and some people
Speaker 1: learn from them and others don't. Believers who grow are
Speaker 1: those who learn how to harvest their hurts. They learn
Speaker 1: learn from their losses to profit from problems. They learn
Speaker 1: how to improve from their injuries, how to advance from
Speaker 1: their adversity, how to gain from their pain. This is
Speaker 1: what God wants to do in pain, using the pain
Speaker 1: in your life. God doesn't have to create pain. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of pain already in the world, but God wants
Speaker 1: to use it for good. And this is why the
Speaker 1: question Paul asked in Galatians chapter three is so important.
Speaker 1: In Galatians chapter three, verse four, Paul says this to
Speaker 1: the people there in the church in Galatia. He says,
Speaker 1: have you gone through all of this for nothing? Is
Speaker 1: it all really for nothing? In other words, have you
Speaker 1: wasted the pain in your life? That's a question that
Speaker 1: I have to ask myself. It's a question you have
Speaker 1: to ask yourself and say, well, is it too late
Speaker 1: to change?
Speaker 2: No, it is not.
Speaker 1: It's not too late to change your mind. It's not
Speaker 1: too late to start benefiting from the pain. Let's look
Speaker 1: at five ways to use your pain for good in
Speaker 1: your life, whether it's physical or emotional, or relational, financial,
Speaker 1: any kind of pain. God wants to use it five
Speaker 1: different ways for good in your life. Now, let me
Speaker 1: give you a personal testimony, but I'm going to share
Speaker 1: with you today. I know this works from personal experience
Speaker 1: as I'm sharing this message right now. This is the
Speaker 1: sixth anniversary of when our youngest son died, and that
Speaker 1: day was the worst day of our family's life. And
Speaker 1: yet we are moving forward, and we're moving forward in
Speaker 1: hope because of what we know from God's word, like
Speaker 1: the verse I just read, and because of how we've
Speaker 1: used that pain for good and for God in our
Speaker 1: lives and in the lives of others. So what I'm
Speaker 1: sharing with you is from personal experience. Five ways God
Speaker 1: wants to use your pain for good. Number one, use
Speaker 1: pain to draw closer to God and trust him more.
Speaker 1: Use the pain in your life to draw closer to
Speaker 1: God and trust him more. You know, when anything painful happens,
Speaker 1: you've got a choice. You can either run to God
Speaker 1: or you can run from God. And now the second
Speaker 1: way never made any sense for me. If you're running
Speaker 1: away from God, what are you running to? Who could
Speaker 1: help you more in your pain than God? Why not
Speaker 1: run to God? But some people, when they're in pain
Speaker 1: they run to God. And some people, when they're in pain,
Speaker 1: they actually run from God, they run away from Him.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll have to tell you, since Matthew died,
Speaker 1: I've spent more time personally alone with God than all
Speaker 1: of my previous life combined.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: Pain has a way of drawing you close to God. Now,
Speaker 1: how do you do that? How do you draw closer
Speaker 1: to God when you're in pain? Well, the first thing
Speaker 1: you do is you just tell Him exactly how you feel.
Speaker 1: If you want to argue with God, argue with God. God,
Speaker 1: I don't like this, God, I'm mad, I'm upset. That's
Speaker 1: a prayer. It's called the prayer of lament. You need
Speaker 1: to learn how to worship God in all the phases
Speaker 1: of grief. You know, our family did what Paul did
Speaker 1: in tewod Corinthians chapter one, in verses eight to ten,
Speaker 1: he says this. He talks about a time he was
Speaker 1: so depressed.
Speaker 2: He says, we were.
Speaker 1: Crushed and overwhelmed, and we saw how powerless we were
Speaker 1: to help ourselves. Ever felt like that, Paul says, but
Speaker 1: that was good. What do you mean, crushed, overwhelmed, powerless?
Speaker 1: He says, that was good? For then we put everything
Speaker 1: into the hands of God, who alone could save us,
Speaker 1: and he did help us. One of the first things
Speaker 1: our family did after Matthew took his life is we
Speaker 1: actually went away on a retreat together as a family,
Speaker 1: and we did a surrender to God retreat together where
Speaker 1: were saying, God, We're going to put this all in
Speaker 1: the hands, all of our brokenness, all of our pain,
Speaker 1: all of our hurt, all of our sorrow. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine that kind of sorrow? And as a family we
Speaker 1: did a surrender to God retreat. Why because pain can
Speaker 1: draw you close to God if you'll let it. The
Speaker 1: Bible says God is close to the broken hearted. God
Speaker 1: is never closer to you than when you're in pain.
Speaker 1: And many of you could say pain turned me to Christ.
Speaker 1: That's why Paul later says in Second Corinthians, chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verse ninety, says, I'm glad not because it hurts you.
Speaker 1: I'm glad not because it hurts you, but because the
Speaker 1: pain turns you to God. And that's the first thing
Speaker 1: you can do. Don't waste your pain, let it turn
Speaker 1: you to God. Spend longer times with him, reading the Bible,
Speaker 1: studying his word, being quiet, listening to God, being alone
Speaker 1: with God. That's what pain can do. It can draw
Speaker 1: you closer to God. That's called worship. Number two. The
Speaker 1: second way you can use pain for good is to
Speaker 1: use pain to draw closer to others. Use pain to
Speaker 1: draw closer to others. This is called fellowship. If you
Speaker 1: allow it, and if you're honest about the things that
Speaker 1: are causing you pain, pain will deepen and mature your
Speaker 1: love and your relationships and your sense of community and Poynanea,
Speaker 1: it will build authentic relationships. You see, suffering sensitizes you
Speaker 1: because it turns you away from being self centered to
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, when you've gone through a major pain,
Speaker 1: you're sensitized to it in others and you can see
Speaker 1: other people in pain, and all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: care more about other people in pain. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a sad statistic that about a third of marriages end
Speaker 1: up splitting up after the loss of a child because
Speaker 1: we all all grieve differently and off and a husband
Speaker 1: grieves one way and a wife greaves in another way,
Speaker 1: and it causes people to go further and further apart.
Speaker 1: But Kay and I, when Matthew died, decided that we
Speaker 1: were going to use the pain to actually grow closer
Speaker 1: together rather than have it drive us apart. And one
Speaker 1: of the things we did is we decided to not
Speaker 1: try to talk each other out of our pain. But
Speaker 1: when Kay was going through a down moment, a wave
Speaker 1: of grief, I would simply walk over to her and
Speaker 1: put my arm around her, or just stand by her
Speaker 1: and be quiet. I wouldn't say anything. There were no
Speaker 1: words to say. It's just the ministry of presents. The
Speaker 1: deeper the pain someone is going through, the fewer words
Speaker 1: you use. Sometimes people are afraid to go over to
Speaker 1: a friend's house when they've lost love and.
Speaker 2: Say, I don't know what to say, don't.
Speaker 1: Say anything, just show up and shut up, just be there.
Speaker 1: It's the ministry of presence. They don't need words, they
Speaker 1: just need your presence. Like when the night Matthew died
Speaker 1: and our small group came over and said, we're spending
Speaker 1: the night at your house.
Speaker 2: We're not going to leave you here alone. We're gonna
Speaker 2: be with you.
Speaker 1: And they didn't try to preach any sermons or give
Speaker 1: us any words of wisdom. They were just there the
Speaker 1: ministry of presents, and they slept on our couches and
Speaker 1: you know, in our kitchen and everywhere. And I'll never
Speaker 1: forget that. And now when Kay and I would go
Speaker 1: through different waves of grief. I'm going through grief, she
Speaker 1: would come over and just stand with me, or sometimes
Speaker 1: a pat on the back or grab my hand, the physical,
Speaker 1: you know, touch without.
Speaker 2: Trying to explain something away or.
Speaker 1: Trying to talk somebody out of their pain. Instead of
Speaker 1: trying to help somebody get out of their pain. Don't
Speaker 1: try to cheer people up when they're in grief. Instead,
Speaker 1: try to enter into their grief and feel it with him.
Speaker 1: That's how you use pain to build fellowship. That's how
Speaker 1: you use pain to build a relationship. That's how you
Speaker 1: use pain to get closer to someone, not trying to
Speaker 1: talk them out of what they're feeling, but actually you
Speaker 1: trying to feel it with them, sharing it with them.
Speaker 2: I will tell you.
Speaker 1: I asked, Kay, why do you think we're so much
Speaker 1: closer together after you know, Matthew died.
Speaker 2: She said, because you've been so nice to me.
Speaker 1: But we intentionally worked at strengthening our relationship and we
Speaker 1: gave each other grace. And what that means is we
Speaker 1: didn't judge each other other's feelings. You see, we often
Speaker 1: think our feelings are legitimate, but your feelings are illegitimate.
Speaker 1: My fears are rational, your feelings, your fears are irrational.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: No, we gave each other grace, so you stop judging
Speaker 1: each other's feelings and try to feel each other's feelings.
Speaker 1: That's what you do in pain to grow it closer relations.
Speaker 1: Chapter six, Verse two says this, by helping each other
Speaker 1: with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.
Speaker 2: What is the law Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: And he says when you share with each other in
Speaker 1: the suffering, and you hurt when other people hurt. Now
Speaker 1: you're loving your neighbors yourself. Pain can teach you how
Speaker 1: to really love, because love is not a quiver in
Speaker 1: your liver. Love is doing the sacrificial thing. Number three.
Speaker 1: Third way you can use pain for good.
Speaker 2: In your life.
Speaker 1: I can use it to draw closer to God, to
Speaker 1: trust him more. That's worship. I can use it to
Speaker 1: grow closer to you and be closer in fellowship. Number three,
Speaker 1: Use pain to grow deeper like Jesus in your character,
Speaker 1: use pain to grow deeper like Jesus. The Bible calls
Speaker 1: this discipleship, and every time you're in pain, it is
Speaker 1: an opportunity to work on your attitude, to work on
Speaker 1: your virtue, to work on your character. The Bible talks
Speaker 1: about the fruit of the spirit nine qualities. The fruit
Speaker 1: of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
Speaker 1: self control. The Bible says, these are what happens when
Speaker 1: the Spirit is living through your life. How does God
Speaker 1: build these qualities in your life by putting you the
Speaker 1: exact opposite situations. He teaches you love when you're around
Speaker 1: unlovely people. He teaches you joy in the middle of grief.
Speaker 1: He teaches you patience by putting you in situations where
Speaker 1: you have to wait. He teaches every one of these qualities.
Speaker 1: Self control by putting you in a situation where you're
Speaker 1: attempting to be not self controlled. Pain is an opportunity
Speaker 1: to grow in character like Christ. But again, it's a choice.
Speaker 1: When you're in pain, you can be bitter or you
Speaker 1: can become better. Pain can be a stepping stone to
Speaker 1: maturity or a stumbling block to immaturity.
Speaker 2: It's not a automatic.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Proverbs twenty verse thirty. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.
Speaker 1: Anybody who want to give a testimony on that verse.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change
Speaker 1: our ways. We don't change when we see the light.
Speaker 1: We change when we feel the heat. Now, once you
Speaker 1: have come to Christ, you're saved. You're in the body
Speaker 1: of Christ. You're in the family of God. You're a
Speaker 1: child of God. Once you're in God's family, God's number
Speaker 1: one purpose in your life is to make you like
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. You're born again. Now, he wants you to
Speaker 1: grow up like father.
Speaker 2: Like son.
Speaker 1: He wants you to have the characteristics of God, the Father.
Speaker 1: God wants to make you like Jesus Christ. He's the
Speaker 1: perfect model of humanity. Now here's the corollary to that.
Speaker 1: If God's going to make me like Jesus, then He's
Speaker 1: going to hate me. Through everything Jesus went through. Did
Speaker 1: Jesus experience pain?
Speaker 2: Of course he did.
Speaker 1: Did Jesus experience times when he was lonely, Yes, when
Speaker 1: he was tempted to be discouraged, Yes, when he was
Speaker 1: simply tempted? Yes, did Jesus have people misunderstand him and
Speaker 1: criticize him. Yes, if God is going to make you
Speaker 1: like Jesus, He's going to take you through everything Jesus
Speaker 1: went through. God did not spare Jesus from being criticized,
Speaker 1: from being persecuted. Why would he spare you. He wants
Speaker 1: you to grow up in character and be like a son.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Hebrews chapter five, verse eight, even
Speaker 1: though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the
Speaker 1: things he suffered. We learn obedience through suffering. In fact,
Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter five, verse nine says it like this suffering
Speaker 1: made Jesus perfect. And now he can say forever all
Speaker 1: who obey him, Now Jesus was perfect.
Speaker 2: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Well, this word telos in Greek means complete. Suffering made
Speaker 1: Jesus complete. There's some things we only learn through pain,
Speaker 1: and so we want to draw closer to God, we
Speaker 1: want to draw closer to others, but we want.
Speaker 2: To become more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: And God wants to build the character of Christ in
Speaker 1: your life, and some of those things can only be
Speaker 1: built through pain. In fact, Paul complimented the way that
Speaker 1: the Corinthian believers had actually grown through their pain in
Speaker 1: tewod Corinthians, chapter seven. He says this verse eleven, Now,
Speaker 1: isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress?
Speaker 1: They had gone through some major distress there in corinth
Speaker 1: isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress
Speaker 1: has goaded you closer to God?
Speaker 2: That's the first purpose.
Speaker 1: You're more alive, You're more concerned, more sensitive, You're more reverent,
Speaker 1: You're more human, you're more passionate, you're more responsible. Looked
Speaker 1: at it from any angle. You've come out of this
Speaker 1: with purity of heart. I love that message. Translation of
Speaker 1: that passage, he says these seven things, being concerned and sensitive,
Speaker 1: and reverent, and human and passionate, responsible, being fully alive
Speaker 1: says you want these things in your life that ask
Speaker 1: God to use the pain that's in your life to
Speaker 1: help you become more like Jesus.
Speaker 2: You see. The fact is pain always transforms us.
Speaker 1: Either for good or bad. It'll make us bitter or better.
Speaker 1: As I said, pain never leaves you where it found you.
Speaker 1: And Second Corinthians eleven, verses twenty three to twenty eight,
Speaker 1: Paul gives the testimony of all of the pain he's
Speaker 1: been through. He said, I've been put in jail more often.
Speaker 1: I've been whipped times without number. I faced death again
Speaker 1: and again and again.
Speaker 2: Five times.
Speaker 1: I was whipped with thirty nine lashes, three times. I
Speaker 1: was beaten with rods once, I was stoned with stones
Speaker 1: three times. I was shipwrecked once. I spent a whole
Speaker 1: night in the day a drift at sea. And he says,
Speaker 1: I faced dangers my entire life from flooded rivers, from robbers,
Speaker 1: from angry mobs. I faced dangers in the city and
Speaker 1: in the deserts and on stormy seas, and for people
Speaker 1: who claim to be Christians but are not. He said,
Speaker 1: I've lived with weariness. I've lived with pain. I've lived
Speaker 1: with sleepless nights. I've often been hungry and thirsty. I've
Speaker 1: often gone without food. I've often shivered with cold, not
Speaker 1: enough clothing to keep me warm. And besides all this,
Speaker 1: I've had the daily burden of all of the churches
Speaker 1: that I've started. Then, he says, in response to all
Speaker 1: of those things, I mean, you think you had problems
Speaker 1: haul did Second Corinthians four verses eight to ten. Here
Speaker 1: is his attitude toward it. He said, you know, we're
Speaker 1: pressed on every side by trouble. Okay, it just comes
Speaker 1: pressing in on us. But we're not crushed, We're not broken.
Speaker 2: Okay. He says, we're perplexed, but we don't give up
Speaker 2: and quit.
Speaker 1: He says, we're often confused about life, but we don't
Speaker 1: give up even when we don't know the answers. He says,
Speaker 1: we're hunted down, but we're never abandoned. God never abandons us.
Speaker 1: He says, we get knocked down, but we get up
Speaker 1: again and keep going. It's like a boxer. I get
Speaker 1: knocked down, but I'm not knocked out, and he says,
Speaker 1: we get up again and keep going through suffering. Paul says,
Speaker 1: these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus,
Speaker 1: so that the life of Jesus may also be seen
Speaker 1: in our bodies.
Speaker 2: WHOA.
Speaker 1: Those three passages are amazing testimony of resilience.
Speaker 2: What was Paul's secret? What was Paul's.
Speaker 1: Secret of the ability to get back up again? Well,
Speaker 1: it was an eternal perspective. He had a greater purpose.
Speaker 1: As I said earlier, you can handle unbelievable pain if
Speaker 1: you can see a purpose in it. And in Two Corinthians,
Speaker 1: Chapter four, verses sixteen to eighteen. Here's the purpose that
Speaker 1: Paul says keeps him going for this reason. This is
Speaker 1: the reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical
Speaker 1: being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is being
Speaker 1: renewed day after day.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 1: I can't stop the aging process, but I can stay
Speaker 1: fresh and renewed in my spirit on the inside. He says,
Speaker 1: these temporary troubles we suffer will bring us a tremendous
Speaker 1: and eternal glory. The reward in heaven much greater than
Speaker 1: the trouble, For we fix our attention not on the
Speaker 1: things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen.
Speaker 1: Because what can be seen last only for a time.
Speaker 1: It's temporary, but what cannot be seen last forever. This
Speaker 1: is the power of growing in Christ when you're in pain,
Speaker 1: of seeing a greater perspective that, yes, I'm in pain
Speaker 1: right now, but even if I had chronic pain my
Speaker 1: entire life, my entire life might be sixty seventy eighty
Speaker 1: at the most ninety years or so. But I'm going
Speaker 1: to benefit from it in heaven and receive the rewards
Speaker 1: and reap the benefits for trillions of years. He said,
Speaker 1: that stuff's going to last forever, so have them greater
Speaker 1: perspective when you're in pain. That's not just here. And
Speaker 1: now let me give you a fourth reason. Remember the
Speaker 1: five purposes. The fourth purpose is the purpose of using
Speaker 1: your life to make a contribution and having a ministry
Speaker 1: or having a place of service. You weren't put on
Speaker 1: this earth to live a self centered life. So here's
Speaker 1: the fourth way you can use pain. Use pain to
Speaker 1: be or become more sensitive in serving others. This is
Speaker 1: called redemptive pain. It is the highest and best use
Speaker 1: of pain. That when I'm going through pain, rather than
Speaker 1: focusing on my pain, I redirect my focus to other
Speaker 1: people are in pain. And as I said earlier, pain
Speaker 1: sensitizes us. If you have struggled with depression, you're sensitive
Speaker 1: to other people who are depressed. If you have struggled
Speaker 1: with physical pain like back pain, then you're sensitive to
Speaker 1: other people who've had back pain. If you've gone through
Speaker 1: the pain of a divorce, you know what it's like,
Speaker 1: and you are sensitive to people who go through the
Speaker 1: pain of a divorce. It doesn't matter what pain you've
Speaker 1: gone through. Jesus wants to redeem your suffering.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to waste it. He wants to use it.
Speaker 1: He wants to use it to help other people when
Speaker 1: they are in pain.
Speaker 2: Tewod Corinthians, chapter one.
Speaker 1: Verses four to six. It's a powerful passage that says
Speaker 1: this God comforts us in all of our troubles so
Speaker 1: that we can comfort others. Then when other people are troubled,
Speaker 1: we will be able to give them the same comfort
Speaker 1: that God has given us.
Speaker 2: You can be sure.
Speaker 1: Paul says that the more we suffer, the more we
Speaker 1: suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with
Speaker 1: his comfort through Christ. So he says, when we're weighed
Speaker 1: down with troubles and pain, he said, it's for your
Speaker 1: benefit and salvation. But when God comforts us, it is
Speaker 1: so that we in turn can be an encouragement to you.
Speaker 1: Then you can patiently endure the same thing we suffer.
Speaker 1: Do not waste your heart, Do not waste your pain.
Speaker 1: Let God use it. Your greatest ministry will come out
Speaker 1: of your deep this pain. Your greatest ministry will come
Speaker 1: out of your greatest weakness and failing. If you'll be
Speaker 1: honest to God, honest to others, and honest to yourself,
Speaker 1: it will become your ministry. So I use pain in
Speaker 1: my life to draw close to God in worship. I
Speaker 1: use pain in my life to draw close to others
Speaker 1: in fellowship. When I share my strengths, that doesn't make
Speaker 1: us feel close. But when I share my weakness as
Speaker 1: you go, oh, it draws us close. Rick has problems
Speaker 1: that if God uses in then maybe God.
Speaker 2: Could use me.
Speaker 1: When you share your pain, it helps you grow in Christ.
Speaker 1: And when you use your pain to minister to others
Speaker 1: who've gone through the same thing, are going through what
Speaker 1: you've already gone through, that's called your ministry.
Speaker 2: Number five.
Speaker 1: God wants you to use pain to witness to the world.
Speaker 1: You see God, God says that our witness comes out
Speaker 1: of our weaknesses, not out of our strengths.
Speaker 2: You see, we've got it all backwards.
Speaker 1: We think the world is impressed by how we enjoy prosperity.
Speaker 2: That don't impress the world.
Speaker 1: They see that all around non Christians have that what
Speaker 1: actually impresses them is not how we handle prosperity, but
Speaker 1: what impresses non believers is how believers handle adversity, not prosperity.
Speaker 1: We think our successes give us credibility, but actually it
Speaker 1: is our suffering that gives us credibility.
Speaker 2: We think that fame earns.
Speaker 1: Respect, but actually it's faithfulness in tough times that earns respect.
Speaker 1: Paul was a pro at this. He was a pro
Speaker 1: at using this pain as a witness. He said, I'm
Speaker 1: not just going to use it to grow close to
Speaker 1: God and to minister to other people. I'm going to
Speaker 1: use it as a witness. In Philippians, chapter one, verse twelve,
Speaker 1: Paul writes this, I want you to know, dear brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here
Speaker 1: And where is he when he's writing. He's in a
Speaker 1: dungeon in Rome, in prison, chained to a prison guard.
Speaker 1: I want you to know, deer brothers and sisters, that
Speaker 1: everything that has happened to me here has helped to
Speaker 1: spread the good news. Paul says, I actually use my
Speaker 1: pain to model the message that God has given me.
Speaker 2: Model my message.
Speaker 1: See, if Paul had not been chained up in prison,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have written all of those letters that became
Speaker 1: the New Testament. He would have been out moving around
Speaker 1: from town to town, going around. God allowed him in
Speaker 1: that prison so he could write all these prison letters,
Speaker 1: which we now read as the New Testament. Paul says
Speaker 1: in two Corinthian sixty four, in everything we do, we
Speaker 1: try to show that we're the true servants of God.
Speaker 1: That means even in how we handle pain, how we
Speaker 1: handle failure, how we handle defeat, how we handle problems,
Speaker 1: how we handle our own mistakes, how we handle sin,
Speaker 1: how we handle all of the bad things that happen
Speaker 1: in our lives. Anybody can handle good. Doesn't take God's
Speaker 1: power to handle good. It takes God's power to patiently endure.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, in everything we do, we try to
Speaker 1: show we're true servants of God. We patiently endure suffering
Speaker 1: and hardship and trouble of every kind. Why because it
Speaker 1: is a witness Just like your deepest ministry will come
Speaker 1: out of your deepest hurt, your deepest life message will
Speaker 1: come out of your deepest pain. This is real, authentic witnessing.
Speaker 1: Now I want you to listen very carefully. Every area
Speaker 1: in your life where you've had pain. Never thought about this,
Speaker 1: but it's true. Every area in your life where you've
Speaker 1: had pain, you have a testimony. Don't waste your pain.
Speaker 1: Don't waste your hurt. There are people all around you
Speaker 1: who are going now through what you've already gone through,
Speaker 1: and they will listen to your story. You know, the
Speaker 1: greatest witness of God's love, the greatest example, the greatest
Speaker 1: demonstration of God's love, was not Jesus's perfect life. The
Speaker 1: greatest witness of God's love was not Jesus's sermons. The
Speaker 1: greatest witness of God's love were not the miracles of Jesus.
Speaker 1: The greatest witness of God's love was the suffering that
Speaker 1: Jesus went through on the cross. The same is true
Speaker 1: with you. Let me pray for you, Heavenly Father. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you that no matter what we go through,
Speaker 1: it may be difficult, but we don't have to be
Speaker 1: devastated by it, because you have said, we know that
Speaker 1: in all things God works together for the good of
Speaker 1: those who love God, who are called according to this purpose.
Speaker 1: You have these five purposes for our lives. May we
Speaker 1: grow in Your plan and purpose for our lives, even
Speaker 1: in the bad times, even in the painful times. Now
Speaker 1: you pray, say, God, help me to use my pain
Speaker 1: to draw closer to You. Help me to use my
Speaker 1: pain to learn to trust you more, to depend on
Speaker 1: you more, to not run from you, but to run
Speaker 1: to you when I am in pain, and when I'm hurting,
Speaker 1: to cry out and ask for your help. And then say, Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to be honest enough to use my pain
Speaker 1: to build relationships, to develop closer connection, to build a
Speaker 1: fellowship with other people, To not try to impress people
Speaker 1: with my strengths, but to be honest about my weaknesses
Speaker 1: and pains and hurts and fears and failures and fumbles
Speaker 1: and flaws, and that realizing we draw closer in humility,
Speaker 1: not in bragging.
Speaker 2: Help me to use the pain in my life to.
Speaker 1: Draw closer to other people who may be going through
Speaker 1: that same pain. Then pray, Lord, help me to become
Speaker 1: more like Jesus. I want to grow in character. I
Speaker 1: want to grow in love and joy and peace and patience.
Speaker 1: And I know that you use even pain in my
Speaker 1: life to build character, to build virtue.
Speaker 2: To make me a little more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: Do that in my life, Lord, And then pray Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to use the pain in my life help
Speaker 1: others who are in pain, and whatever I've gone through,
Speaker 1: use it to serve others, to take the things that
Speaker 1: I've been most afraid of or ashamed of, or running from,
Speaker 1: and realizing that you want to actually use that that
Speaker 1: they're all a lot of other people going through the
Speaker 1: exact same thing in our world today. Help me to
Speaker 1: use to use what I've gone through for your glory.
Speaker 1: And may my great ministry, greatest ministry come out of
Speaker 1: my deepest hurts. And finally, Lord, I want to be
Speaker 1: a witness with my weakness. I want to be a
Speaker 1: witness with the pain, and help me to look for
Speaker 1: ways to find people who are going through things that
Speaker 1: I've gone through, and then to step up alongside them
Speaker 1: and invite them to know You, to share your love
Speaker 1: with them. I want to be a witness, not out
Speaker 1: of my successes that I want to be a witness
Speaker 1: out of the pain that I've had in my life.
Speaker 1: I commit all of this to you, Lord. I know
Speaker 1: I can handle pain if I can see the purpose
Speaker 1: in it, and I know that there will be great
Speaker 1: rewards in heaven. Father, I thank you for these who've
Speaker 1: prayed this prayer. And if there's somebody here who listening
Speaker 1: to me who has not opened their life that Jesus Christ, yet,
Speaker 1: may they right now say Jesus Christ, come into my life.
Speaker 1: Just say that, Jesus Christ, come into my life and
Speaker 1: replace the painful parts in my heart with your comfort
Speaker 1: and your care and your courage. I want to follow
Speaker 1: you from this day forward. Jesus, I humbly ask you
Speaker 1: to accept me into your family.
Speaker 2: In your name, I pray Amen.