Speaker 1: The very thing you're most ashamed of in your life,
Speaker 1: the very thing you wish it had never happened, the
Speaker 1: very thing you resent the most, the very thing that's
Speaker 1: caused you the most pain, could become your greatest ministry
Speaker 1: in helping other people. The very thing you hate the
Speaker 1: most in your life, that God was grieving over when
Speaker 1: it happened.
Speaker 2: God wants to use it for good in your life.
Speaker 1: See, anybody can bring good out of good, but God
Speaker 1: specializes in bringing good out of bad. How do you
Speaker 1: get through what you're going through. I'm not a prophet,
Speaker 1: and I'm certainly not a psychic. I don't even believe
Speaker 1: in psychics. Nobody can predict the future. If somebody's trying
Speaker 1: to predict the future and they're taking your money, you're
Speaker 1: getting ripped off because nobody, the Bible says, knows the future.
Speaker 2: Nobody knows it. But I do know this.
Speaker 1: In the next three hundred and sixty five days, some
Speaker 1: of them are going to be tough for you. You're
Speaker 1: going to go through some difficult days. You're going to
Speaker 1: go through some tough times. You're going to go through
Speaker 1: some rogue winds, some trials, troubles, tribulations, you're going to
Speaker 1: go through some problems and pressures and stress in your life.
Speaker 1: In fact, I can guarantee it. Why Because the world
Speaker 1: is broken. We've talked about this many times. Nothing on
Speaker 1: the earth works perfectly. Once Sin entered the world, the
Speaker 1: world is in rebellion against God. You are in rebellion
Speaker 1: against God. I'm in rebellion against God, he said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not. Oh yeah you are. Every day you get
Speaker 1: up and decide what you want to do, not what
Speaker 1: God wants you to do, And almost on a daily
Speaker 1: business you go, I know what God says, I'm good,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this. Instead. That's called rebellion. That's called sin,
Speaker 1: and that broke everything in the planet. So nothing works perfectly.
Speaker 1: The weather doesn't work perfectly, the economy doesn't work perfectly.
Speaker 1: Your body it doesn't work perfectly. Your relationships, your marriage,
Speaker 1: your friendship doesn't work perfectly. None of your dreams happen
Speaker 1: exactly as you plan them to be. Nothing on this
Speaker 1: planet is perfect because everything is broken. This is Earth,
Speaker 1: not Heaven. Everything works right in Heaven. Nothing works correctly
Speaker 1: all the time on Earth. Probably the question I'm asked
Speaker 1: more often than any other question is Rick, why is
Speaker 1: there evil in the world? Why is their suffering in
Speaker 1: the world. Why is their pain in the world. Why
Speaker 1: are there so many problems in the world. Why does
Speaker 1: God allow evil and all the pain that comes from
Speaker 1: it in the world. Well, it's not really that hard
Speaker 1: a question to answer. It's because God has given you
Speaker 1: a free choice, and God has given all of us
Speaker 1: a free will. And because of that we make stupid choices.
Speaker 1: You do, I do, and other people do, and that
Speaker 1: causes pain, and that causes hurt and as a result,
Speaker 1: everything is broken. Now, God could get rid of all
Speaker 1: the evil in the world instantly by just taking you
Speaker 1: out of it, and me too, and everybody else. Because
Speaker 1: none of us do right all the time. We all
Speaker 1: have our own brand of self centeredness. I do, and
Speaker 1: we all have our own brand. You have hurt people,
Speaker 1: sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, and that causes pain.
Speaker 2: And you have been hurt by others.
Speaker 1: Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Now God could get rid of
Speaker 1: all the suffering, all the sorrow, all the sadness, all
Speaker 1: the brokenness by just taking away man's free will. He
Speaker 1: could have made us puppets. He could have made us
Speaker 1: where you don't even have a choice. But God allows
Speaker 1: you to reject him. God allows you to go your
Speaker 1: own way. God allows you to disobey. God allows you.
Speaker 1: Don't have to love God. In fact, most people in
Speaker 1: the world don't, and as a result, there are consequences
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: Why does God allow free choice?
Speaker 1: Because he wants a race of tested individuals in his
Speaker 1: family who choose to love him.
Speaker 2: And love is a choice.
Speaker 1: I can't say that I truly love you unless I
Speaker 1: have the choice to not love you. If I'm forced
Speaker 1: to love you, it's not love. If God forces us
Speaker 1: to do the right thing, If God forces us to
Speaker 1: love Him forces us to worship, it's not worship. It's
Speaker 1: not love, it's not honor. It's being forced to do it.
Speaker 1: God could have made you where you had no choice
Speaker 1: at all, and you prayed ten times a day, and
Speaker 1: you always did the right thing, and you never lied,
Speaker 1: never exaggerated, never got jealous, never had envious, never stressed out,
Speaker 1: never worried. He could have done that, and then there
Speaker 1: would be no problems in the world. But the reason
Speaker 1: why there are sin and suffering and sorrow is because
Speaker 1: of the choices that people have made. See if I
Speaker 1: overeat and I don't exercise, and I get under stressed
Speaker 1: and I have a heart attack. I can't say and die.
Speaker 1: I can't say, hey, what was God doing? Why did
Speaker 1: God kill me? Or kay can't say why did God
Speaker 1: kill my husband? God didn't kill my husband. I killed
Speaker 1: me with a fork. And if I go out here
Speaker 1: and I get drunk and I'm driving down the freeway
Speaker 1: and I run into a car with a woman who's
Speaker 1: how pregnant with a child, and she dies and the
Speaker 1: baby insider dies, that wasn't well, it must have been God's.
Speaker 2: Well, no, that was my will.
Speaker 1: I am so tired of people attributing evil to God.
Speaker 1: Somebody gets molested, somebody gets beat up, a war gets started, Well,
Speaker 1: it must be God's will.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: God's will is almost never done on this earth. Why
Speaker 1: because we have a will. That's why we are commanded
Speaker 1: to pray Thy will be done on earth as it
Speaker 1: is in heaven. Why because in Heaven's God's will is
Speaker 1: done perfectly, And on earth.
Speaker 2: It's almost never done.
Speaker 1: For somebody who says, well, everything that happens is God's will, well,
Speaker 1: God allows it, yes, but where does God do it?
Speaker 1: He's grieving when a woman or a man gets raped
Speaker 1: and a little child gets molested. Was that God's will?
Speaker 1: Of course not. God is not the author of evil.
Speaker 1: But God has allowed the freedom of choice. One day,
Speaker 1: the Bible says, God is going to settle the score
Speaker 1: one day. God is going to even the odds. One day,
Speaker 1: the books are going to be balanced. There is going
Speaker 1: to be eternal judgment, and there is going to be
Speaker 1: eternal reward, No doubt about it. There will be a
Speaker 1: judgment day. In the meantime, we're living on a broken planet.
Speaker 1: And that's why I can guarantee you're going to have problems.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love about the Bible we're
Speaker 1: getting ready to go into forty days in the Word
Speaker 1: in about two weeks, is that the Bible always tells
Speaker 1: the truth. Any other book will have exaggerations in it
Speaker 1: will lie to you.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: You read biographies of guys that are written by their friends,
Speaker 1: and they gloss over all the bad parts. The Bible,
Speaker 1: when it talks about people, shows them warts and all.
Speaker 1: It always tells the truth. And what tells us that
Speaker 1: Abraham was a great man of God.
Speaker 2: It also tells us all his weaknesses.
Speaker 1: When it tells us that David was a great man
Speaker 1: of God. It also tells us all his weaknesses in
Speaker 1: the passage we're going to look at today. Second Corinthians.
Speaker 1: One Paul, probably the greatest Christian who ever lived next
Speaker 1: to Jesus himself, talks about when he went through the
Speaker 1: slew of depression, when he was so depressed he despaired
Speaker 1: of life itself.
Speaker 2: He said, you're kidding me. I am not kidding you. That.
Speaker 1: Paul was so honest he talked about it. He said,
Speaker 1: one time, I was so depressed. I was so discouraged.
Speaker 1: I was ready to give up. I was ready to
Speaker 1: throw in the I was ready to kick.
Speaker 2: Kick the bucket. I was ready to say, Okay, God
Speaker 2: just kill me.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna live. I was so in much despair.
Speaker 1: Now the good news is we can learn from that.
Speaker 1: This is a very powerful passage we're gonna look at now.
Speaker 1: I hope you're not going through tough times right now.
Speaker 1: You may be, but you're gonna need what I share with.
Speaker 2: You this morning.
Speaker 1: So get out your pencil, because this passage teaches us
Speaker 1: the six keys to getting through what you're going through
Speaker 1: when you're going through a tough time. We first, let's
Speaker 1: read this passage. Paul begins, all praise to the God
Speaker 1: and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is the
Speaker 1: source of every mercy and the God who comforts us.
Speaker 1: And he's going to talk a lot about comfort because
Speaker 1: he's talking about going through tough times. He God comforts
Speaker 1: us in our troubles so that we can comfort others. Now,
Speaker 1: he says, when others are troubled, we will be able
Speaker 1: to give them the same comfort that we have been,
Speaker 1: that we've been given, that God has given us. You
Speaker 1: can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ,
Speaker 1: the more God will shower us with comfort through Christ.
Speaker 1: So when we're weighed down with troubles, that describe you today,
Speaker 1: When you're weighed down with troubles, he says, when we're
Speaker 1: weighed down for troubles, it's for your benefit and salvation.
Speaker 2: Who's he talking to.
Speaker 1: He's talking to a group of people in the city
Speaker 1: of Corinth, Greece.
Speaker 2: That's fine.
Speaker 1: This book is called Corinthians. It's written to the people
Speaker 1: who lived in Corinth, Greece. If you'd written us, he
Speaker 1: would have written first Californians. But this is first Corinthians, okay.
Speaker 1: And so he says when God comforts us, it is
Speaker 1: so that we in turn can be an encouragement to you.
Speaker 1: He says, it's for your benefit salvation. When God comforts us,
Speaker 1: we in turn can be an encouragement to you. Then
Speaker 1: you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We're
Speaker 1: all confident that as you share in suffering, you will
Speaker 1: also share God's comfort. Now, I guess a little biographical here,
Speaker 1: and he starts to tell us what's going on in
Speaker 1: his life. He says this, I think you ought to know,
Speaker 1: dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble that we went
Speaker 1: through in the province of Asia. Paul's given a little
Speaker 1: biography here. He said, we were crushed. Never felt like that.
Speaker 1: We were crushed, and we were completely overwhelmed. Ever felt
Speaker 1: like that, and we feared that we would never live
Speaker 1: through it.
Speaker 2: In fact, we expected to die. That's pretty bad when
Speaker 2: you're going through a tough time. And he say, I'm
Speaker 2: not even gonna make it. I'm going to die in this.
Speaker 1: But he says, as a reason rel we learned not
Speaker 1: to rely on ourselves but on God, who can raise
Speaker 1: the dead.
Speaker 2: I mean God can do anything. He can. He can
Speaker 2: raise the dead.
Speaker 1: And He God did deliver us from mortal danger, and
Speaker 1: we are confident that He will continue to deliver us.
Speaker 1: He will rescue us because you, you people in Corinth,
Speaker 1: you are helping by praying for us.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: As a result, many others will give thanks to God
Speaker 1: because so many people's prayers.
Speaker 2: For our safety have been answered. Now, in this very.
Speaker 1: Powerful passage, Paul gives us models for us the six
Speaker 1: things you must do to get through what you're going through.
Speaker 2: Let's look at him. Number one.
Speaker 1: No matter what I'm going through physically, relationally, financially, mentally, spocially,
Speaker 1: whatever tough time.
Speaker 2: I'm going through, the first thing I have.
Speaker 1: To do is this, I've got to remember remember that
Speaker 1: God can use it for good. That's the starting point.
Speaker 1: Before I do anything else, I remember that no matter
Speaker 1: what I'm going through, God can use it for good
Speaker 1: in my life. Now, I don't have time to go
Speaker 1: into all the ways that God can use problems in
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 2: There are literally.
Speaker 1: Dozens and dozens of ways God can use problems for
Speaker 1: good in your life, and the Bible has a lot
Speaker 1: of lot to say about this. The Bible says that
Speaker 1: God uses problems to direct us to say, here's the
Speaker 1: way I want you to go.
Speaker 2: And God uses.
Speaker 1: Problems to inspect us, to see what's really inside of us,
Speaker 1: what we're made of. Like a tea bag, you put
Speaker 1: it in hot water, you know what comes out. You
Speaker 1: know what's inside it. When you squeeze a toothpaste that
Speaker 1: you know what's inside it. When the squeezes on you,
Speaker 1: what's inside of you comes out. God uses problems to
Speaker 1: direct us and inspect us. God uses problems to correct us,
Speaker 1: say I don't want you to go that way. I
Speaker 1: want you to go this way. God uses problems to
Speaker 1: perfect us, to make us like himself. And God uses
Speaker 1: problems to protect us, saying I really don't want you
Speaker 1: to get hurt over there. Someone allow a problem here
Speaker 1: to keep you from doing that over there. The Bible
Speaker 1: talks about how problems edify us, how problems sanctify us,
Speaker 1: how problems purify us. There are many, many good benefits
Speaker 1: of problems in your life. But in this passage Paul
Speaker 1: mentions three. So let's just look at those three. There
Speaker 1: are three things God can do with the problems in
Speaker 1: your life. You might write these down. First, God can
Speaker 1: use it to teach me to trust him. God can
Speaker 1: use the problems I'm going through to teach me to
Speaker 1: trust him. Andre Crouch, the famous Christian singer, once wrote
Speaker 1: a song and he says, if I never had a problem,
Speaker 1: I'd never know that God could solve them. It's true,
Speaker 1: how many times have you heard me say this? You
Speaker 1: don't know God is all you need until God is
Speaker 1: all you've got. And you've lost your job, and you've
Speaker 1: lost your house, and you've lost your marriage, or you've
Speaker 1: lost your health and all these things, and you don't
Speaker 1: know God is all you need until God is all
Speaker 1: you've got. God can use the problems I go through
Speaker 1: to teach me to trust him.
Speaker 2: Look at verse eight.
Speaker 1: We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we
Speaker 1: would never live through it.
Speaker 2: In fact, we expected to die.
Speaker 1: But as a result circle that as a result, this
Speaker 1: is the first benefit of problems in my life. As
Speaker 1: a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves but
Speaker 1: on God, who can raise the dead. You know, some
Speaker 1: things we only learn through pain, just human nature. There's
Speaker 1: some things your parents could tell you a hundred times.
Speaker 1: Don't touch that hot stove, but it looks so cool,
Speaker 1: and you touch it and you get burned, and then
Speaker 1: you never touch it again. Some things we only learn
Speaker 1: through pain. God says, I want you to learn to
Speaker 1: trust me, and so I'll allow problems that force you.
Speaker 2: To make that choice.
Speaker 1: Another thing we can learn is God can use problems
Speaker 1: to give me a ministry to others. To give me
Speaker 1: a ministry to others, You say, you got to be
Speaker 1: kidding me, I'm not. Your pain often reveals God's purpose
Speaker 1: for you. How many times have you heard me say
Speaker 1: God never wastes a hurt. If you've gone through a hurt,
Speaker 1: God doesn't want you to waste it and just hold
Speaker 1: on to it. He wants you to be able to
Speaker 1: help other people going through that same hurt. He wants
Speaker 1: you to share it. And God can use the problems
Speaker 1: in my life to give me a ministry to others.
Speaker 1: In fact, the very thing you're most ashamed of in
Speaker 1: your life, the very thing you wish it had never happened,
Speaker 1: the very thing you resent the most, the very thing
Speaker 1: that's caused you the most pain, could become your greatest
Speaker 1: ministry in helping other people who can better help somebody
Speaker 1: going through a bankruptcy and somebody who went to a bankruptcy,
Speaker 1: who can better help somebody lose in a house than
Speaker 1: somebody who lost a house. Who can better help somebody
Speaker 1: struggling with an addiction, sexual chemical or whatever? Then somebody
Speaker 1: who struggled with an addiction, sexual chemical or whatever.
Speaker 2: That's what celebrate recovery is all about.
Speaker 1: Who could better help parents of a special needs child
Speaker 1: than parents who raised a special needs child? Who could
Speaker 1: better help somebody who's lost a child than somebody who
Speaker 1: lost a child? Who could better help somebody who's been
Speaker 1: molested or raped? And somebody goes, I know that pain.
Speaker 1: I know that the very thing you hate the most
Speaker 1: in your life that God was grieving over when it happened.
Speaker 1: God wants to use it for good in your life.
Speaker 1: You see, anybody can bring good out of good, but
Speaker 1: God specializes in bringing good out of bad. A lady
Speaker 1: once asked me, he said, where was God when my
Speaker 1: son died? I said, he was the same place he
Speaker 1: was when his son died.
Speaker 2: On the cross. He was crying, he was grieving.
Speaker 1: God looked down and saw what was happening to his son,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, and he was grieving. Could God have stopped it, Yes,
Speaker 1: of course he could have. But how we have done
Speaker 1: taken away the free will of men. And if he
Speaker 1: did that, he needs to take away your free will
Speaker 1: and your choice. That's not fair to take away somebody
Speaker 1: else's but not yours. God looks at the things that
Speaker 1: happen in our lives that causes pain, and the Bible
Speaker 1: says God weeps. Did you know the only reason you
Speaker 1: have emotions is because you're created in God's image God.
Speaker 1: God is an emotional God. God has feelings too. If
Speaker 1: God didn't have feelings, believe me, as a human being,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have any feelings. But God gets happy, so
Speaker 1: you get happy. And God gets sad, so you experience sadness.
Speaker 1: And God gets angry, so you get angry. God gets
Speaker 1: jealous when he sees people rejecting him for somebody, So
Speaker 1: that's why you have jealousy. The reason you have emotions
Speaker 1: is because God is an emotional God and he created
Speaker 1: you in his image. And when you're being pain, believe me,
Speaker 1: God is in pain with you. He is weeping and
Speaker 1: he's crying. But God can give you a ministry to others.
Speaker 1: The things in your life that are painful. God wants
Speaker 1: to use for good to help others. Look at these
Speaker 1: verses first, Corinthians one four. God comforts us in our
Speaker 1: troubles so that we can comfort others.
Speaker 2: Look at verse six.
Speaker 1: When we're weighed down with troubles, it's for your benefit.
Speaker 1: In other words, when I'm going through my problem, it's
Speaker 1: really for your benefit for when and salvation. When God
Speaker 1: comforts us so that we in turn can be an
Speaker 1: encouragement to you, then you could patiently endure the same
Speaker 1: thing the friends. This is called redemptive suffering. Redemptive suffering
Speaker 1: is when you go through a problem and a pain
Speaker 1: for the benefit of others. This is what Jesus did
Speaker 1: when Jesus died on the cross. He didn't deserve to die,
Speaker 1: and he went through that pain redemptively for your benefit,
Speaker 1: so you could be saved, so you could go to heaven,
Speaker 1: so I could go to heaven for redemption. Any mother
Speaker 1: who's had a baby has gone through redemptive suffering. They
Speaker 1: don't call it labor for nothing. And when a woman
Speaker 1: is going through the pains of labor, she's not doing
Speaker 1: that for her benefit. She's doing it for the benefit
Speaker 1: of that baby. That's redemptive suffering.
Speaker 2: You see.
Speaker 1: There are many different problems for the p causes for
Speaker 1: the problems, pain and suffering in your life. Sometimes, In fact,
Speaker 1: most of the stuff that happens I bring on myself.
Speaker 1: When I make stupid decisions, then it causes.
Speaker 2: Pain in my life.
Speaker 1: If I go out and I overspend and I buy
Speaker 1: things I can't afford, and I get a house that
Speaker 1: I can't afford, and I presume on the future, and
Speaker 1: then I go deeply in debt and I lose my house.
Speaker 1: I can't say, God, why do you let me lose
Speaker 1: my house? I brought that on myself. I can't blame
Speaker 1: God for my decisions that I overspend and put way
Speaker 1: too much money on the credit card.
Speaker 2: That was my choice. God had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1: So some of the problems I bring on myself, some
Speaker 1: of the problems I'm innocent. Some of the problems you're
Speaker 1: innocent with, and you're hurt by the pain, the stupidity,
Speaker 1: the wrong decisions, the sins of other people, and you're
Speaker 1: hurt by other sins.
Speaker 2: But some of the.
Speaker 1: Pain, some of the problems in your life is for
Speaker 1: redemptive suffering for the benefit of other people. And God
Speaker 1: allows you to go through a problem so then you
Speaker 1: can help others.
Speaker 2: It's a third thing I can remember that God can
Speaker 2: use it.
Speaker 1: Not only did teach me to draw close to him,
Speaker 1: to trust him to give me a ministry. God can
Speaker 1: use it to draw me closer to other believers. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a big deal, to draw me closer to
Speaker 1: other believers. God wired the human being for community. You
Speaker 1: were wired for relationships. You weren't meant to go through
Speaker 1: life all alone. Whether you ever get married or not
Speaker 1: is irrelevant. But you need people in your life and
Speaker 1: you need a spiritual family. That's why you need a church.
Speaker 1: We are a spiritual family, and you need close relationships
Speaker 1: and you need friendships. In fact, the very first thing
Speaker 1: God said was not good about the earth. He said,
Speaker 1: it's not good for man to be alone. Did you
Speaker 1: know that.
Speaker 2: God hates loneliness? Hates it.
Speaker 1: God hates loneness. God is a God of love. Love
Speaker 1: means you have to have relationships. God is in a
Speaker 1: relationship to himself, father, son, and Holy Spirit. God is
Speaker 1: a relational God and he made you to have relationships.
Speaker 2: And here's the problem.
Speaker 1: We get so busy with activities and achievements and accomplishments.
Speaker 1: We don't have time for relationships, and so we skim.
Speaker 1: We're pretty independent minded. I don't need anybody. I got
Speaker 1: it on the goone, I got it all together. Until
Speaker 1: we get into problem and pain humbles us, and pain
Speaker 1: realizes that helps us realize we need support, that we
Speaker 1: were made for each other, that we're better together, and
Speaker 1: pain draws us closer. It moves us to accept support.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, you ask other people
Speaker 1: for prayer because you're in so much pain. Paul says
Speaker 1: this and verse six or verse eleven, he will rescue us.
Speaker 1: I'm going through this depressing time because you are are
Speaker 1: helping how by praying for us, And as a result,
Speaker 1: many others will give thanks to God because so many
Speaker 1: people's prayers for our safety have been answered. Pain reveals
Speaker 1: how much we need each other. Now turn your outline
Speaker 1: over and I want you to notice four levels of
Speaker 1: small group relationships. Because we're getting ready to go into
Speaker 1: the next major small group study. Forty days in the word,
Speaker 1: we have over five thousand small groups. We want everybody
Speaker 1: in a small group. Why because without a small group,
Speaker 1: you can't build those kind of relationships. You don't have
Speaker 1: anybody to pray for you. Now, this is why it's
Speaker 1: so important that we learn to have relationships. Now, I
Speaker 1: want you to understand there are four levels of fellowship
Speaker 1: in a small group, and my prayer is that during
Speaker 1: the next forty days.
Speaker 2: You're gonna go one level deeper.
Speaker 1: There's the shallowest level, and there's the deepest level. Now,
Speaker 1: the shallowest level of relationships in a small group at work,
Speaker 1: wherever neighborhood is the fellowship of sharing, and the fellowship
Speaker 1: of sharing is.
Speaker 2: Hey, how about them packers?
Speaker 1: Boy, we really had another tough week suffering for Jesus
Speaker 1: in southern California with this weather. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: I almost had to put on socks. Yeah, must be winter, okay.
Speaker 1: And you know it's that kind of shallow talk about
Speaker 1: where you just share your lives. Now, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with the fellowship of sharing, nothing wrong with it all.
Speaker 2: It's just the shallowest level level.
Speaker 1: And in fact, in your small group, you need to
Speaker 1: do a little bit of this every week you meet
Speaker 1: where you just kind of share your lives. You catch
Speaker 1: up on each other's lives. That's an important part of
Speaker 1: being in a small group. What's going on at work,
Speaker 1: what's going on on in your life, what's going on
Speaker 1: with your friends, your kids or whatever. And the fellowship
Speaker 1: of sharing. There's nothing wrong with You can talk about
Speaker 1: trivial stuff. What movie did you see? What do you like?
Speaker 1: What do you see on YouTube? Well, you know, what'd
Speaker 1: you post on Facebook? You can share anything and there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 1: It's a level of sharing, but it's the shallowest level.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The next level, which is a little bit deeper, more intimate,
Speaker 1: is the fellowship not of sharing, but the fellowship of studying.
Speaker 1: When we watch a video Bible teaching in a small
Speaker 1: group and then we open our Bibles and we study
Speaker 1: it together, we've now gone to the next level because
Speaker 1: now we're talking about more than just the weather and
Speaker 1: the economy.
Speaker 2: Now we're talking about things that change our lives.
Speaker 1: So the fellowship of studying builds a deeper relationship with three,
Speaker 1: four or five other people in your small group. And
Speaker 1: in that studying we go deeper, we grow closer together.
Speaker 1: But there's an even deeper level in that third level
Speaker 1: is the fellowship of serving together. Not studying and sharing,
Speaker 1: but serving together. If you want to grow close together
Speaker 1: with the people in your group, pick a project. Go
Speaker 1: out and help the homeless, go out and help the poor,
Speaker 1: go out and help people at prison, go out and
Speaker 1: do some tutoring, go out and help the guys down
Speaker 1: at Pendleton Marine Base, or just pick There's thousands of
Speaker 1: ways you can do good by serving together, it draws
Speaker 1: you even closer. One time, my small group a few
Speaker 1: years back, we went to Africa for ten days did
Speaker 1: a peace project together. We grew closer together in those
Speaker 1: ten days than we had in all the years we've
Speaker 1: been together because we were living together for several days.
Speaker 1: And in serving, you actually grow closer than studying or sharing.
Speaker 1: But the deepest level, the most intimate level, the most
Speaker 1: soul satisfying level, and you need a few of these
Speaker 1: relationships in your life is the fellowship of suffering. And
Speaker 1: that's when you take a deep breath and you go, you, guys,
Speaker 1: I need to share something. I really had a tough week.
Speaker 1: Things aren't going good in my work, in my marriage,
Speaker 1: with my kids, with my finances. And you take the
Speaker 1: chance to reveal the pain you're holding inside yourself. Now,
Speaker 1: whenever you share a joy, it's doubled. Whenever you share
Speaker 1: a pain, it's cut in half. And you're not carrying
Speaker 1: such a heavy load anymore. So you need to share
Speaker 1: the fellowship of suffering. That's the deepest level of all.
Speaker 1: The small group that I'm in right now, I think
Speaker 1: I've been in it eight years, this one, and there
Speaker 1: is no problem we haven't shared in eight or more years.
Speaker 1: We've had bankruptcy, we've had tax problems, we've had cancer,
Speaker 1: we've had major illness is, we've had deaths in the family,
Speaker 1: we've had problems with children, we've had major crises, we've
Speaker 1: had all you couldn't name all of the stuff that
Speaker 1: we've gone through, and it has drawn me close to them,
Speaker 1: and it has drawn them close to me. And I
Speaker 1: know that if two o'clock tomorrow morning, I had to
Speaker 1: go to the emergency room, I know there are three other.
Speaker 2: Guys who would be there with me.
Speaker 1: Because I've been there for them and they've been there
Speaker 1: for me in the middle of the night when we
Speaker 1: needed each other. It wasn't just let's get together and
Speaker 1: study the Bible. It's the fellowship of suffering. Now, the
Speaker 1: deepest level of all is the fellowship.
Speaker 2: Of the Ring.
Speaker 1: But we're not going to get into that. I'm just
Speaker 1: seeing if you're listening. Actually, you know some of you
Speaker 1: look like you're kind of dozing off.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 1: So, my precious, my goal is that you will get
Speaker 1: in a group so you can learn. Everybody needs a
Speaker 1: couple of those deeper les. You don't need a lot
Speaker 1: of them in life, but you need a couple of
Speaker 1: people who are always there when you need them.
Speaker 2: And that's the fellowship of suffering.
Speaker 1: So the first thing God says I can do is
Speaker 1: I can use it for good.
Speaker 2: I need to remember. Now.
Speaker 1: The second thing I need to do to get through
Speaker 1: whatever I'm going through is I need to refuse. I
Speaker 1: need to refuse to listen to my fears. Remember that
Speaker 1: God can use it for good. And the second thing
Speaker 1: I do to get through what I'm going through is
Speaker 1: refuse to listen to my fears, because the moment you
Speaker 1: get in a tough spot, Satan goes over time in
Speaker 1: your life, filling you with worry. Now, in Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse eight and nine, Paul says this, he's
Speaker 1: honest about his fears.
Speaker 2: He shares his fears.
Speaker 1: I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,
Speaker 1: about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.
Speaker 1: We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we feared circle.
Speaker 2: That word feared. We feared we would never live through it.
Speaker 2: What are you afraid of right now?
Speaker 1: In fact, we expected to die, But as a result,
Speaker 1: we learned not to rely in ourselves. Now, some of
Speaker 1: you are really good worries. In fact, some of you
Speaker 1: are professional worriers. I mean you're pros at it because
Speaker 1: you are naturally predisposed by your personality to worry. Now,
Speaker 1: people who tend to worry tend to marry people who
Speaker 1: are over confident, and then they are irritating each other
Speaker 1: all the time. Okay, and you both have your weaknesses.
Speaker 1: Over Confidence can be a weakness too, all right Now,
Speaker 1: If your partner or your friend worries a lot, don't
Speaker 1: you get haughty and self frightened about it because you've
Speaker 1: got your own weaknesses too. Some of you have a
Speaker 1: predisposition to anger, and you lose your top easily. Some
Speaker 1: of you have a predisposition to depression, and you naturally
Speaker 1: get depressed. Some of you have a natural predisposition to
Speaker 1: get jealous or envious. Some of you have a natural
Speaker 1: tendency to be insecure. We all have our hang ups.
Speaker 1: But if I'm going to get through what I'm going through,
Speaker 1: I cannot be dominated by worry. So here's what I
Speaker 1: want to suggest you do. If you're a professional worrier,
Speaker 1: schedule you're worrying. Put it in your schedule. In fact,
Speaker 1: i'm going to tell you, as your pastor, as your
Speaker 1: spiritual advisor, you're a spiritual coach, I'm going to tell you,
Speaker 1: I want you to schedule your worry period from seven
Speaker 1: pm to seven h five pm every night. When you
Speaker 1: start to worry during the okay, said Rick. Said, I
Speaker 1: can't worry now I will. I'll put that off and
Speaker 1: at seven seven o'clock then I will worry about it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now from seven to seven oh five you can have
Speaker 1: a full on panic attack for all I care. Okay,
Speaker 1: I just don't want you wasting the entire day worrying,
Speaker 1: because worry is worthless. It has never changed anything. Worry
Speaker 1: is doing without doing. It does not change the past.
Speaker 1: It cannot control the future.
Speaker 2: It just screws you up right now. It messes you
Speaker 2: up right now.
Speaker 1: So you worry is worth it. So I want you
Speaker 1: to limit it to five minutes a day. And when
Speaker 1: you start to worry, instead of letting it dominate you
Speaker 1: and you just go over and over and over and
Speaker 1: of course, the more you worry about, the bigger it gets.
Speaker 1: It just exaggerates itself. You limit it to five minutes
Speaker 1: a day. I only want you wasting five minutes a day.
Speaker 1: And you schedule it and say, okay, that's my worry time,
Speaker 1: and so I'm not gonna worry about it now. I've
Speaker 1: already planned to worry about it at seven o'clock. And
Speaker 1: that way you don't mess up your whole day. I
Speaker 1: refuse to listen to my fears.
Speaker 2: This is what Paul did.
Speaker 1: Remember to get through what I'm going through, I have
Speaker 1: to remember God can use it for good. I can
Speaker 1: refuse to give into fear. Number three, Rejoice in spite
Speaker 1: of my circumstances. That's the third thing you must do
Speaker 1: to get through what you're going through. I must rejoice
Speaker 1: in spite of my circumstances. Now, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go into this in detail. I think it's pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 1: But look up here on the screen and let me
Speaker 1: show you a couple verses Philippius four to four. Rejoice
Speaker 1: in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice? How often
Speaker 1: are we to rejoice always? And are we to rejoice
Speaker 1: for our circumstances? No, it says rejoice in the Lord.
Speaker 2: Lord.
Speaker 1: You are not to rejoice in the problem. You were
Speaker 1: to rejoice in the Lord. Big difference. You're not going
Speaker 1: to say, oh, thank you God, I got this major problem. No,
Speaker 1: you rejoice in the Lord, not in your problem.
Speaker 2: Let me show you another one.
Speaker 1: Give thanks in all circumstances. Now it says not some
Speaker 1: all give thanks in all circumstances. But notice it says
Speaker 1: in all circumstances. It doesn't say give thanks for all circumstances.
Speaker 1: God is not asking you to be a masochist. If
Speaker 1: you go, oh, thank you God, I got cancer, that's stupid.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you God, my loved one died. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's masochism. God doesn't expect you put on a
Speaker 1: happy face everything's fine when it's not fine. That's just lying.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say give thanks for the problems in your life.
Speaker 2: It says give.
Speaker 1: Thanks in in all circumstances, not for in all circumstances.
Speaker 1: For if this is God's will for you, this is
Speaker 1: God's will for you.
Speaker 2: People say, well, I'm in this problem right now. I
Speaker 2: just need to know what is God's will.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what God's will is give thanks in
Speaker 1: all circumstances. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now, let me
Speaker 1: give you one more James one twelve one two. Whenever
Speaker 1: trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.
Speaker 1: Joy is a choice. It is a choice to rejoice.
Speaker 1: Kay's just written a new book based on the study
Speaker 1: last year. It's coming out in a couple of months,
Speaker 1: called Choose Joy. You always have a choice, and no
Speaker 1: matter how bad things are in your life, there is
Speaker 1: always something to thank God for. Now, this is exactly
Speaker 1: what Paul did. In verse three. Paul is in the
Speaker 1: middle of a depressing time and he says this, all
Speaker 1: praise to God, to the God and Father of our Lord,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, all praise, rejoicing. He is the source of
Speaker 1: every mercy and the God who comforts us.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're going through right now, and
Speaker 1: I really don't know what you're going to go through,
Speaker 1: but I do know this. Here's what you can rejoice over.
Speaker 1: God sees what I'm going through. God knows what I'm
Speaker 1: going through. God cares about what I'm going through. God
Speaker 1: loves me. God will never stop loving me. God is
Speaker 1: in control. God can give me the power to change.
Speaker 1: God will use us for good in my life. He
Speaker 1: will direct me, perfect me, correct me, inspect me, protect me.
Speaker 1: He will edify me, purify me, sanctify me. He will
Speaker 1: give me a ministry to other people. He will draw
Speaker 1: me closer to other believers.
Speaker 2: There are a.
Speaker 1: Hundred things you can thank God for even when the
Speaker 1: bottom has fallen out. I remember, I refuse, and I rejoice.
Speaker 1: The Bible says this Romans eight twenty eight.
Speaker 2: On the screen.
Speaker 1: We know that in everything God works for the good.
Speaker 1: It's not all good, but God works for the good
Speaker 1: of those who love him. They are the people he
Speaker 1: called because that was his plan. Rejoice. Number four recruit.
Speaker 1: I must recruit others to pray for me. This is
Speaker 1: the fourth thing Paul does, And this is the fourth
Speaker 1: thing you need to do to get through what you're
Speaker 1: going through. You need to recruit other people to pray
Speaker 1: for you. Now, this is very easy when you're in
Speaker 1: a small group. And that's why we want everybody in
Speaker 1: a small group, because you just ask your small group
Speaker 1: to pray for Hey. Hey, I'm going through this tough time.
Speaker 1: If you're not in a small group, you are unprotected.
Speaker 1: You don't have a small group to pray for you constantly,
Speaker 1: who know your needs. You don't have an group, you
Speaker 1: are unprotected.
Speaker 2: You don't have the.
Speaker 1: Strength that people in a small group do because you
Speaker 1: don't have people praying for you.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this in verse eleven.
Speaker 1: God will rescue us because you are helping by praying
Speaker 1: for us. Now, friends, I'll just be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I don't know how this works. I don't know how
Speaker 1: it works. But there is additional power in group prayer
Speaker 1: that is not in when you just pray for yourself.
Speaker 1: There is more power in group prayer than in single
Speaker 1: power of you praying for yourself. The Bible says, if
Speaker 1: any two agree is touching anything, it shall be done.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, where two or more gathered in my name,
Speaker 1: they're are mine in the midst of them. You need
Speaker 1: that power to get through what you're going through. That's
Speaker 1: why you need to be in a small group. It's
Speaker 1: why you need to ask them to pray for you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says this on the screen Galatians six, two
Speaker 1: carry each other's burdens. We're commanded to do that. How
Speaker 1: do you do that? By praying for each other? Carry
Speaker 1: each other's burdens. And in this way you will fulfill
Speaker 1: the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ?
Speaker 1: We spend a month on it last fall. Love your
Speaker 1: neighbor as yourself. When you pray for other people, you
Speaker 1: are loving your neighbor as yourself. When they pray for you,
Speaker 1: they are loving you as themselves. Number five, reaffirm my
Speaker 1: faith in God. Even in the darkest moment of my life,
Speaker 1: I must choose to reaffirm my faith in God. Now,
Speaker 1: Paul says, I'm overwhelmed, I'm crushed. I didn't feel like
Speaker 1: I was going to live through it. My feelings are
Speaker 1: telling me I'm gonna die. I'm not gonna make it. It
Speaker 1: is terrible. It's black, dark, and I can't see ahead.
Speaker 1: And yet he says this in verse ten. We are
Speaker 1: confident that's reaffirming my faith. We are confident that he
Speaker 1: will not might, he will continue to deliver us. Reaffirm
Speaker 1: my faith and friends. This last week, little Jesse Reese
Speaker 1: lost her battle with brain cancer after ten months.
Speaker 2: Courageous little Jesse.
Speaker 1: Most of you know Pastor Eric Reeese in our church
Speaker 1: our ministry. Pastor teaches three oh one. If you've been
Speaker 1: through that class, written a couple books on how God
Speaker 1: uses shape to guide your life. Eric and Stacey Reese
Speaker 1: ten months ago learned that their oldest daughter, Jesse, twelve
Speaker 1: years old, had inoperable terminal two brain tumors. And for
Speaker 1: the last ten months they had been watching their.
Speaker 2: Little twelve year old girl slowly died.
Speaker 1: And they did the chemo, and they did the radiation,
Speaker 1: and they did all the medical science could possibly do.
Speaker 1: But this week Jesse lost that courageous battle. She had
Speaker 1: started a web page with tens of thousands of others
Speaker 1: to help kids who were cancer had little kids who
Speaker 1: had cancer.
Speaker 2: She started joy Jars. She started to.
Speaker 1: Think, called Nigu never ever give up. She was an
Speaker 1: inspiration to people all over America. But she lost that
Speaker 1: battle and she's now in heaven.
Speaker 2: I was at Eric and.
Speaker 1: Stacy's house very quickly after Jesse passed away, and we
Speaker 1: were sitting there and I asked Stacy, Stacy, how in
Speaker 1: the world did you handle How did you get through
Speaker 1: what you were going through the last ten months while
Speaker 1: you're watching your twelve year old daughter slowly die in
Speaker 1: front of your eyes and there's nothing you can do
Speaker 1: to stop it.
Speaker 2: And Stacy said, you know Rick.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, I just felt emotionally empty inside.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel anything, and I couldn't even pray.
Speaker 2: I didn't even have the words to say.
Speaker 1: I was just empty inside and I could only pray
Speaker 1: one sentence, and this was a sentence.
Speaker 2: I trust you. I trust you. That is a godly woman.
Speaker 2: That is what it means to have faith. I trust you.
Speaker 1: I'm watching my little girl die and I don't know why.
Speaker 1: And I know this is a broken planet and nothing
Speaker 1: works perfectly. But God, you are a good God, and
Speaker 1: I am gonna trust you even when my.
Speaker 2: Heart is being ripped out.
Speaker 1: Job prayed, though he killed me, I will still trust him.
Speaker 1: That's faith. That's a godly man. He said, though he
Speaker 1: slay me, yet I will trust him.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Do you have that kind of faith that says God,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna trust you and live for you and do
Speaker 1: the right thing even when things aren't going my way.
Speaker 1: Are you just a little puny baby and you only
Speaker 1: follow God when thing goes You're right? Well, things go
Speaker 1: your way, but everything starts to fall apart and you
Speaker 1: walk away from God. That is the most immature. I
Speaker 1: must reaffirm my faith God. I don't understand it. And
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get an explanation till I get to heaven.
Speaker 1: But I trust you that's how you get through what
Speaker 1: you're going through. Now, how do you get that kind
Speaker 1: of Stacy Reees' faith? There's only one way you got
Speaker 1: to get in this book, the Bible says this faith
Speaker 1: comes from hearing the Word of God.
Speaker 2: If the more you.
Speaker 1: Get of the Bible in your life, the stronger your
Speaker 1: faith's gonna be. You get a lot of the Bible
Speaker 1: in your life, you're gonna have a lot of faith.
Speaker 1: You get a little Bible, you got have little faith.
Speaker 1: You get the Bible only once a week at church,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have almost no faith. That's like fasting six
Speaker 1: days a week and then having a banquet on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Use no way you're gonna be healthy physically or spiritually.
Speaker 1: That's why we're going to do forty days in the Word.
Speaker 1: I'm going to teach you how to get into the
Speaker 1: Bible on a daily basi because I am bound and
Speaker 1: determined as somebody who loves you, that I'm gonna increase
Speaker 1: your faith this year because you're gonna need to get
Speaker 1: ready for the rogue wins I hope they don't come,
Speaker 1: but you don't know what's gonna hit you, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna need to have your faith strong, and you only
Speaker 1: get it by getting into this book. And that leads
Speaker 1: us to number six. Rely on God's promises.
Speaker 2: My heart is.
Speaker 1: Breaking when I'm going through terrible times. The way I
Speaker 1: get through what I'm going through is I rely on
Speaker 1: the promises of God.
Speaker 2: Did you know?
Speaker 1: They're over six thousand promises of God in this book,
Speaker 1: six thousand. They're like blank checks, and their promises about
Speaker 1: your career, promises about your kids, promises about your health,
Speaker 1: promises about your future and your past, and all the
Speaker 1: things your finances. But you can't claim those promises unless
Speaker 1: you know them. So you got to get in the word.
Speaker 1: Look at what the Bible says Romans fifteen four. Everything
Speaker 1: that was written in the past he's talking about the
Speaker 1: Bible was written.
Speaker 2: Everything in the Bible is written to teach us.
Speaker 1: The scriptures give us two things, endurance and encouragement. The
Speaker 1: scriptures give us endurance and encouragement, so we have hope.
Speaker 1: If you are not in this book on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: you do not have the endurance nor the encouragement you
Speaker 1: need to get through what you're going through. Now, let
Speaker 1: me close with the promise, one of those six thousand
Speaker 1: promises for those of you who are going through the
Speaker 1: fire right now, look at this first on the screen.
Speaker 2: James one twelve.
Speaker 1: God will bless you if you don't give up when
Speaker 1: your faith is tested, He will reward you with the
Speaker 1: crown of life, just as he rewards everyone who loves him.
Speaker 1: Let's bow our heads. Would you pray this prayer in
Speaker 1: your heart Jesus Christ. I open my life completely to you.
Speaker 1: I want to get to know you. I want to
Speaker 1: learn to love you, learn to trust you. I want
Speaker 1: to grow my faith. Jesus Christ. I need you to
Speaker 1: help me get through what I'm going through. If you've
Speaker 1: never asked Jesus to do this, say Jesus Christ, please.
Speaker 2: Save me today, be my savior and Lord.
Speaker 1: I don't understand it all, but I am saying yes
Speaker 1: to you today. If you are already you've made that
Speaker 1: commitment to say, Jesus Christ, help me to take these steps.
Speaker 2: To remember.
Speaker 1: The good that you can bring out of my problem,
Speaker 1: To refuse to give in to the fear, to rejoice
Speaker 1: no matter what I'm going through, To recruit people in
Speaker 1: my small group to pray for me to relax and
Speaker 1: rest and trust in you, to rely on your promises,
Speaker 1: and to reaffirm my faith. If you're not in a
Speaker 1: small group, say Lord, I want to get in a
Speaker 1: group that I might learn this material and learn to
Speaker 1: love you and others.
Speaker 2: We pray this in Jesus name. Amen,