Speaker 1: Pain is a warning light that something is wrong. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's what pain is. Pain is a warning light that
Speaker 1: something is wrong in your life, in the economy, in
Speaker 1: your family, in your business, whatever.
Speaker 2: Pain is always a warning light.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you, if a warning light goes
Speaker 1: off in your car and you ignore that warning light,
Speaker 1: does that make the problem go away? Of course, not
Speaker 1: ignoring pain will not make it go away. It won't
Speaker 1: fix the cause of your pain. And to ignore pain
Speaker 1: in your life is literally one of the dumbest things
Speaker 1: you can do. Pain is a warning light that something's wrong.
Speaker 1: There is purpose in pain. Now, today, I want to
Speaker 1: show you five ways that God can use any pain
Speaker 1: in your life for your own good, regardless of the source. Now,
Speaker 1: did you hear what I just said? Regardless of the source,
Speaker 1: regardless of whether your pain came to you from something
Speaker 1: good or something bad, whether you brought the pain on
Speaker 1: yourself from poor choices or other people cause pain in
Speaker 1: your life and you're innocent, or Satan's trying to attack
Speaker 1: you with pain and tear you down. You know, we're
Speaker 1: always worried about the source. No matter what the source
Speaker 1: of your pain is, God can use it for good
Speaker 1: in your life We're gonna look at right now. Five
Speaker 1: ways that God can use pain for good in my life.
Speaker 1: Here's what God's word says. Five ways God can use
Speaker 1: pain for good in my life. Number one, God uses
Speaker 1: pain to guide and direct me. Proverb sixteen to nine
Speaker 1: says this. A person may plan his own journey, but
Speaker 1: the Lord directs is steps.
Speaker 2: The Lord direct circle.
Speaker 1: That word directs so much the time we're not aware
Speaker 1: of this, But behind the scenes, God is using even
Speaker 1: our choices, both the good ones and the bad ones,
Speaker 1: to direct our steps. God is directing your life. Job
Speaker 1: thirty six point fifteen says this. God teaches people through
Speaker 1: suffering and uses distress to open their eyes. Does that
Speaker 1: ever happened to you? Oh, of course it has. God
Speaker 1: teaches people through suffering, uses distress to open their eyes.
Speaker 1: He guides and directs us through pain. You ever thought
Speaker 1: about why horse riders put a bit in a horse's mouth?
Speaker 2: Is it for the horse's comfort? Of course not.
Speaker 1: The rider actually uses discomfort to point the horse in
Speaker 1: a different direction. It's the rudder like on a ship,
Speaker 1: like a tiny rudder on a boat. Sometimes it only
Speaker 1: takes a little bit of pain to guide and direct us.
Speaker 2: Or to read diirect this.
Speaker 1: Paul had this to say, the believers of Corinth who
Speaker 1: we're experiencing some discomfort and pain. Two Corinthians seventy nine.
Speaker 1: He said, now I'm glad, not because it hurts you.
Speaker 1: He's talking about some pain they were going through. Paul says,
Speaker 1: I'm glad. I'm not glad because it hurts you, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad because the pain turns you to God. That's
Speaker 1: the first thing pain does. Guides and directs us. It
Speaker 1: often turns us in a new direction. You know, when
Speaker 1: King David realized that God was using the pain in
Speaker 1: his life that he was experience to guide in directive,
Speaker 1: David was actually grateful for his pain, and in Psia
Speaker 1: one nineteen, verse seventy one, he says this, You know,
Speaker 1: it was the best thing that could have happened to me,
Speaker 1: for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.
Speaker 1: It is good for me to be afflicted, David says,
Speaker 1: so that I might learn your laws, I might learn
Speaker 1: your statutes. Let me ask you a personal question. Has
Speaker 1: God ever used pain to get your attention?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Has God ever used pain to me to guide you?
Speaker 1: To guide you in a new direction? To direct you
Speaker 1: in a new direction.
Speaker 2: Yes. C. S.
Speaker 1: Lewis once said, God whispers to us in our pleasure,
Speaker 1: but he shouts to us in our pain. Pain is
Speaker 1: God's megaphone, and it directs you, It guides you. Pain
Speaker 1: never leaves you where it found you. So that's the
Speaker 1: firs benefit of pain that God can use it for good.
Speaker 1: Don't matter how bad the pain is or where it
Speaker 1: came from. God can use pain to guide and direct me. Second,
Speaker 1: God can use pain not only to guide and direct me.
Speaker 1: He can use pain to God and correct me, goad
Speaker 1: and correct me.
Speaker 2: Now what does that mean? What does God mean? What
Speaker 2: means to motivate?
Speaker 1: When somebody goads you on, it means they're spurring you
Speaker 1: onto action. Pain is a catalyst. Pain catalyzes in action
Speaker 1: like nothing else. One of the most obvious verses in
Speaker 1: the Bible is Proverbs twenty thirty that says this, sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. Hello,
Speaker 1: anybody want to give a testimony on that? Every one
Speaker 1: of you could think of a personal example right now
Speaker 1: in your own life where you can give a testimony
Speaker 1: of the truth of this verse that sometimes it takes
Speaker 1: a painful situation to make exchange our ways. Pain prompts
Speaker 1: us to do things we'd rather put off. It prods us,
Speaker 1: It pushes us. It goads us, It goads and it motivates.
Speaker 1: It not just guides and directs. It goads us and
Speaker 1: pushes us in the right direction.
Speaker 2: You know. Typically we don't change when we see the light.
Speaker 1: We think we do. We don't change when you see
Speaker 1: the light. We change when we feel the heat. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's just get real honest here. When was the last
Speaker 1: time you decided to go to the dentist? When did
Speaker 1: you finally go to your dentist? Was it when you
Speaker 1: had free time?
Speaker 2: No? Is, when you were in pain and.
Speaker 1: The pain finally got so bad you couldn't no longer
Speaker 1: delay or postpone or procrastinate to do something about it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change
Speaker 1: our ways. Now, pain not only guides and directs, it
Speaker 1: gods and corrects. Do you know the difference between correction
Speaker 1: and punishment? If you're a parent, I want you to
Speaker 1: listen to this, particularly the difference between punishment and correction.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't punish your kids. The Bible as you should
Speaker 1: correct them. Why punishment is a penalty for the past.
Speaker 1: Correction is training for the future. It's discipline is not punishment.
Speaker 1: Discipline is training. Discipline is correction. Sometimes in life, something
Speaker 1: bad happens, we think God is punishing us, and actually
Speaker 1: God is just correcting us. Why because God doesn't punish
Speaker 1: his children. Yeah, you heard me right. God doesn't punish
Speaker 1: his children. Why because Jesus has already taken all of
Speaker 1: the punishment for every sin on the cross. And if
Speaker 1: Jesus took all that punishment and then God punished you,
Speaker 1: that's double jeopardy. Every sin you ever commit has already
Speaker 1: been paid for. So God doesn't punish you for your sins,
Speaker 1: but he definitely does correct you. And correction is the
Speaker 1: evidence of love. And how does God correct us? Sometimes
Speaker 1: through pain? Hebrews twelve eight to ten says this, God
Speaker 1: corrects all of his children, and if he doesn't correct you, then.
Speaker 2: You don't really belong to him. See that verse.
Speaker 1: Look at that version in your outline. If you don't
Speaker 1: ever have any correction in your life, then you're not
Speaker 1: really a believer. Because God corrects his own children. God
Speaker 1: doesn't correct those who aren't his children. I don't worry
Speaker 1: about other people's kids, but I certainly corrected mine. The
Speaker 1: Bible says there God corrects us for our own good
Speaker 1: because he wants us to be holy as he is.
Speaker 1: Another verse that says the same thing as Job Chapter five,
Speaker 1: verse seventeen. Consider yourself fortunate when God, all powerful, chooses
Speaker 1: to correct you, just means that he loves you. So
Speaker 1: God uses pain to go and motivate and correct me
Speaker 1: when I'm messing up.
Speaker 2: You remember the.
Speaker 1: Story in the Bible that Jesus told about the arrogant
Speaker 1: young son who asked for inheritance and advanced it before
Speaker 1: his father had even died, took his money and went
Speaker 1: and spent it everywhere, wasted on wine, women and song,
Speaker 1: and he goes down to Sunset Strip in Jerusalem and
Speaker 1: just blows everything he's gotten. Pretty soon he's bankrupt and
Speaker 1: he's having to feed pigs to to make a living.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty bad if you're jew. And the Bible
Speaker 1: says that he was in a mess. But what was
Speaker 1: it that motivated that young man in that story of
Speaker 1: Jesus to finally go back home to his father. It
Speaker 1: was pain, It was discomfort. Luke Chapter fifteen, verse fourteen
Speaker 1: to eighteen. The story of the Prodigal Sign. It says
Speaker 1: he spent everything he had and then he was hungry.
Speaker 1: Now you know he is being motivated. He's being goaded.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: At last he came to his senses and said, I'll
Speaker 1: go I'll get up and I'll go to my father.
Speaker 1: He came to his sentences. Why did he come to
Speaker 1: a sentence? Why did he come to his senses because
Speaker 1: he was motivated? And why was he motivated because he
Speaker 1: was hungry? Who are the most motivated salesman? Hungry salesman
Speaker 1: made me think of when Josh was a little kid.
Speaker 1: One time he skipped lunch at school and he came
Speaker 1: in complaining to He said, my stomach aches, and Kay said, well.
Speaker 2: It's because there's nothing in it.
Speaker 1: About five minutes later, I walked in and I said
Speaker 1: my headaches and Josh said, Mom says, because there's nothing
Speaker 1: in it. If you want your life to go smoother,
Speaker 1: all right, you want your life to go smoother, just
Speaker 1: start cooperating. When God brings any kind of correction into
Speaker 1: your life. He's not punishing you. God isn't mad at you.
Speaker 2: He loves you.
Speaker 1: He's mad about you, and Hebrews twelve, verse seven says, says,
Speaker 1: let God train you, for he's doing what any loving
Speaker 1: father does for his children. Whoever heard of a child
Speaker 1: who was never corrected? Circle the word train and circle
Speaker 1: the word corrected. They go together. That's the second purpose
Speaker 1: of pain, to correct us, to train us, to go
Speaker 1: to us and correct us. Now, how many of you
Speaker 1: who are parents would rather not have to discipline? Well,
Speaker 1: all of us, but how many of you? Sometimes I
Speaker 1: have to discipline your kids anyway, all of us. God's
Speaker 1: the same way. He'd rather not correct you. He'd rather
Speaker 1: not have to discipline you. He'd rather not have to
Speaker 1: allow pain in your life. But sometimes the only way
Speaker 1: to train is through pain. To you here that sometimes
Speaker 1: the only way to train is through pain. Aristotle once
Speaker 1: said we cannot learn without pain. And I would say
Speaker 1: that some things you learned you learned by being burned.
Speaker 1: Let me give you personal testimony. In all my years
Speaker 1: of walking with the Lord, I can tell you this,
Speaker 1: I have learned absolutely nothing from pleasure. All the important
Speaker 1: stuff I've learned in life I learned through pain. I
Speaker 1: learned nothing through pleasure. I learned nothing from success. Everything
Speaker 1: I learned I learned through pain. The man who's never suffered,
Speaker 1: the woman who's never suffered, they don't know much because
Speaker 1: the greatest insights on life are found at the center
Speaker 1: of pain. You learn things there that you can't learn
Speaker 1: any other way. But when that happens, never doubt God's motive.
Speaker 1: He is a loving father. He is not punishing you.
Speaker 1: He is correcting you because he loves you. So let's
Speaker 1: review why how can God use things for good, even
Speaker 1: the pain in my life for good? Well, he uses
Speaker 1: it to guide and direct me. Second, he uses it
Speaker 1: to God and correct me. Number three, God uses pain
Speaker 1: to gauge and inspect me. God uses pain to gauge
Speaker 1: and inspect me, in other words, to find out what's
Speaker 1: really inside of me, to test my character. People are
Speaker 1: like tea bags. You don't know what's really in him
Speaker 1: to you drop them in hot water. In Job chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verse eighteen, it says you God inspect them every morning,
Speaker 1: and you test them every minute. Did you know that
Speaker 1: God's inspecting you every morning and every minute? Another verse
Speaker 1: Jeremiah seventeen ten, The Lord searches our hearts. That's inspection,
Speaker 1: and he examines our deepest motivations, which we don't even
Speaker 1: know ourselves.
Speaker 2: Why does he do that?
Speaker 1: So He can give to each person his right reward
Speaker 1: according to his deeds, how he has lived, So how
Speaker 1: does God inspect us and test us?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse on your outline, Isaiah forty eight,
Speaker 1: verse ten. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Speaker 1: God uses pain to test your character. God uses pain
Speaker 1: to test your commitment. God uses pain to test your faith.
Speaker 1: The Bible often compares suffering to a refining fire, like
Speaker 1: when you heat up gold to burn off all the impurity.
Speaker 2: So it's just pure gold.
Speaker 1: Heat burns off the impurities and silver and other gold
Speaker 1: and precious metals. So let me just ask you right now,
Speaker 1: if you're going through pain of any kind, are you
Speaker 1: allowing that pain to burn off the impurities in your life?
Speaker 1: What are you allowing pain to burn off? Self centeredness, pride, materialism, impatience.
Speaker 1: Pain is a measuring tool. It's an evaluation tool. It
Speaker 1: tests our character, and your reaction to pain does reveal
Speaker 1: a lot about you. Look at this verse, James, Chapter one,
Speaker 1: verse two and three. It says God tests and challenges. Now,
Speaker 1: it says tests and challenges come at you from all sides.
Speaker 1: And we know that you get tests and challenges from
Speaker 1: all sides. And you know that under pressure, your faith
Speaker 1: is forced into the open to show its true colors.
Speaker 2: Don't you love that?
Speaker 1: In the message paraphrase, he's saying, pain is a test.
Speaker 1: It exposes the real view for you. It shows what
Speaker 1: you really like inside. You know, image and reputation, that's
Speaker 1: what everybody thinks you are. Character is what you really are.
Speaker 1: Character's what you are in the dark. It's hard to
Speaker 1: maintain an image when you're in pain. Or Shakespeare said
Speaker 1: nobody can be a philosopher with a toothache. So has
Speaker 1: God ever tested your character with pain?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah? Oh yeah?
Speaker 1: And so God wants to test you and when it's
Speaker 1: painful when you say, well, I have integrity, but are
Speaker 1: you willing to lower your stand when it's painful? You
Speaker 1: might say I am committed, But do you want to
Speaker 1: throw in the towel when it's painful? You say I'm
Speaker 1: a woman or I'm a man of faith, But do
Speaker 1: you want to give up and get discouraged when pain
Speaker 1: comes into your life? Your faith is measured by your
Speaker 1: reaction to pain. Your commitment is measured by your reaction
Speaker 1: to pain. Your integrity is measured by your reaction to pain.
Speaker 1: Your christ likeness is determined and shown revealed by how
Speaker 1: you handle pain. Your maturity shows how your pain shows
Speaker 1: how mature you are. What does pressure reveal about your faith?
Speaker 1: Are you more than just a fair weather believer?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: This is the reason, by the way that it took
Speaker 1: them forty years in the desert to get from Egypt
Speaker 1: to Israel, the Promised Land, once they had been freed
Speaker 1: from four hundred years of slavery. You know that story
Speaker 1: that you could walk from Egypt over to Israel in
Speaker 1: about a month or less, and it took them forty years.
Speaker 1: What in the world they're doing out there in the
Speaker 1: desert being tested? And God gave them seven major tests,
Speaker 1: and every time they failed to test, he says, okay,
Speaker 1: one more lap around the desert. Deuteronomy eight two. God
Speaker 1: says to the Israelites. God led you through the wilderness
Speaker 1: for forty years, humbling you and testing you to find
Speaker 1: out how you would respond and whether or not you
Speaker 1: would really obey him. These are the tests. And I'm saying,
Speaker 1: are you going through pain right now? This is a test.
Speaker 1: Are you going through an emotional wilderness. Right now, this
Speaker 1: is a test. God may be guiding and guiding you,
Speaker 1: or God may be goading you, or God may be
Speaker 1: gauging you. He may be seeking to inspect you and
Speaker 1: find out what's really on the inside. Maybe though, your
Speaker 1: pain that you're going through right now is for a
Speaker 1: fourth reason. Number four, God uses pain to God and
Speaker 1: to guide and to guard gauge. But number four God
Speaker 1: uses pain to guard and protect me. God uses pain
Speaker 1: to guard and protect me. And this is a wonderful
Speaker 1: thing that we don't often realize.
Speaker 2: Ninety one.
Speaker 1: Verse three says this God will save you from hidden traps.
Speaker 1: And he said, what traps, Well, that's why you don't
Speaker 1: see him.
Speaker 2: They're hidden.
Speaker 1: But all around you are hidden traps that Satan has planted,
Speaker 1: and the world is planted, and the flesh is planted,
Speaker 1: and those traps are there. Sometimes God uses you, uses
Speaker 1: pain to keep you from walking into a hidden trap.
Speaker 1: He uses pain to protect you, to guard you and
Speaker 1: protect you Joe thirty six, Verse sixteen, God has led
Speaker 1: you away from danger, giving you freedom. Sometimes a pain
Speaker 1: in one area keeps you from having even worse pain
Speaker 1: in another area, where if you'd walked.
Speaker 2: Into that it would have been a disaster.
Speaker 1: Sometimes protects pain protects you from something worse, It prevents
Speaker 1: you from greater harm. Sometimes pain is actually a blessing
Speaker 1: in disguise. For instance, you get a fever. A fever
Speaker 1: warns you of an infection or an inflammation that needs
Speaker 1: to be dealt with. Sometimes a small pain in your
Speaker 1: life can alert you to life threatening the illnesses. And
Speaker 1: when you're pain in pain emotionally, you're sad, you're discouraged,
Speaker 1: you're depressed, you're angry, you're upset, you're irritated, you're frustrated.
Speaker 1: Any kind of emotional pain, painful emotions means something is
Speaker 1: out of order in your relationship to God, or your
Speaker 1: relationship to others, or your relationship to yourself. And so
Speaker 1: sometimes God will allow pain to keep you from falling
Speaker 1: off in the ditch. You know, the Bible says the
Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd's in the Middle East. Well,
Speaker 1: sometimes if they've got a sheep that has a tendency
Speaker 1: to wander off, and if it wanders off from the flock,
Speaker 1: it's going to get eaten by a wolf pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: And so sometimes a shepherd will intend inntionally break the
Speaker 1: leg of a lamb that is prone to wander, Why
Speaker 1: keep it from getting in trouble. They're guarding that lamb.
Speaker 1: They broke the leg to guard the lamb. They did
Speaker 1: it for protection. They did it for protection. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the story of Joseph, How everything in his life
Speaker 1: for the first forty years, everything went wrong. He was
Speaker 1: painfully mistreated for years. He was he went through all
Speaker 1: kinds of injustice. He had racism, he had a family conflict,
Speaker 1: he had all he had people accusing him of rape,
Speaker 1: and all kinds of things that just were He was
Speaker 1: thrown in prison for no reason, and he was painfully
Speaker 1: mistreated for year after year after year. But God was
Speaker 1: guarding and guiding and growing him and getting him ready
Speaker 1: for greatness. And looking back later in Genesis fifty twenty,
Speaker 1: Joseph says, this about all all the pain that had
Speaker 1: happened in the first forty years of his life. You
Speaker 1: talking to the people who had brought on the pain,
Speaker 1: the people who sold them in slavery. You intended to
Speaker 1: harm me, but God intended it for good. Now let
Speaker 1: me tell you this, friends, there are people in your
Speaker 1: life who want to harm you. They don't like you.
Speaker 1: They don't like you because you're a Christian, or they
Speaker 1: just don't like you. Whatever, they intend to harm you.
Speaker 1: But God intends it for good. And I will tell
Speaker 1: you that in justice. In Joseph's life, there is no
Speaker 1: greatness without pain.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Later Joseph had two sons, and one he named Manassa
Speaker 1: and one he named Ephraim. Manasa means made me forget.
Speaker 1: He said, when that little boy was born, it made
Speaker 1: me forget all my pain. And then he had Ephraim,
Speaker 1: who he said, he is fruitful, and he forgot all
Speaker 1: the pain when.
Speaker 2: He looked at those little babies. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: We can't see what God sees because God can see
Speaker 1: the whole picture, and we don't see it, so we
Speaker 1: get impatient. But I want to encourage you to remember
Speaker 1: this verse John thirteen, verse seven, where Jesus says this,
Speaker 1: you don't realize now what I'm doing, but later you'll
Speaker 1: understand what an encouraging verse John thirteen seven. You don't
Speaker 1: realize now what I'm doing, but later you understand. Many
Speaker 1: times I have been through pain, and I not say that.
Speaker 1: God was saying to me, Rick, you don't understand now
Speaker 1: why you're going through this, but you will one day.
Speaker 1: I want you to remember that God uses pain to
Speaker 1: guide and direct, to guide and direct me, to go
Speaker 1: and correct me, to gauge and inspect me, and to
Speaker 1: guard and protect me. But there's one more way. God
Speaker 1: uses pain to grow and perfect me. I'd use this
Speaker 1: pain to grow and perfect me. It's possible to grow
Speaker 1: during times of bright fair weather, but you know what,
Speaker 1: you put down the roots and you go deeper during
Speaker 1: the dark days of life. I could read you one hundred,
Speaker 1: maybe one thousand letters where people would say your pastor,
Speaker 1: I have grown more through this separation than whatever. I
Speaker 1: have grown more through this illness. I have grown more
Speaker 1: through losing my job and being unemployed. I have grown
Speaker 1: more through this tragedy than I ever imagined. I have
Speaker 1: grown more through this loss. I have grown more through
Speaker 1: this storm because God uses it to grow and perfect me. James,
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse four. For when the way is rough,
Speaker 1: your patience has a chance to grow. So let it
Speaker 1: grow and don't try to scorn them out of all
Speaker 1: your problems. Then you'll be ready for anything, strong in character,
Speaker 1: full and complete. My prayer for you is that you
Speaker 1: will be ready for anything strong in character, full, and complete.
Speaker 1: Pain is the high cost of growth. And it's cliche,
Speaker 1: but it's true. There is no gain without pain.
Speaker 2: You see.
Speaker 1: The fact is we want the quick solution, We want
Speaker 1: the easy fix. We want the pill of the seminar
Speaker 1: of the book that's going to change everything. Without pain,
Speaker 1: it isn't going to happen. We want the product that's
Speaker 1: maturity without the process, which is pain. You see, the
Speaker 1: very thing that's discouraging you right now is the very
Speaker 1: thing that God is using to develop you.
Speaker 2: Right now. What discourages you will develop you if.
Speaker 1: You'll look at it from God's point of view again, James,
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse four, from the Message, So don't try
Speaker 1: to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its
Speaker 1: work so you become mature and well developed.
Speaker 2: I don't know what pain you're going.
Speaker 1: Through, but I will tell you this, if you'll lean
Speaker 1: on the Lord, you'll make it. How was David able
Speaker 1: to write such beautiful, powerful moving psalms.
Speaker 2: Well through all the pain he went through.
Speaker 1: If you look at David's life, it wasn't anything but
Speaker 1: happy most of the time. I mean, you look at
Speaker 1: his family background. He's lonely, he's rejected by his brothers,
Speaker 1: he's neglected, and yet most of the time, even after
Speaker 1: he's anointed king, he's on the run and the existing
Speaker 1: king is trying to kill him, and he's hiding out
Speaker 1: in caves. David wrote his most beautiful words in his
Speaker 1: deepest pain. I come back to this verse one Corinthians,
Speaker 1: Chapter one, verse nine, where Paul says this happened when
Speaker 1: all talked about. He gives a long list of all
Speaker 1: things he had gone through. You know, he said, I've
Speaker 1: been shipwrecked, I've been beaten, I've been tortured, I've been
Speaker 1: in jail. You know, I've died and had you know,
Speaker 1: nearly died three or four times. And he said, this happened.
Speaker 1: All these tough things. He said, we despaired it, even
Speaker 1: life itself. In other words, I was ready to give up.
Speaker 1: He said, this happened so that we might learn to
Speaker 1: trust not in ourselves, but in God. Friends, you don't
Speaker 1: know Jesus is all you need. Until Jesus is all
Speaker 1: you've got, where are you wasting your pain? Pain is inevitable.
Speaker 1: Pain is not optional. Pain is a part of life.
Speaker 1: Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional. And question I want
Speaker 1: to ask you is the question Paul asks in Galatians three,
Speaker 1: verse four, Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere?
Speaker 1: You notice that when people go through tragedy and disaster
Speaker 1: and pain, some people turn to God, and some people
Speaker 1: turn away from God.
Speaker 2: Why that happens, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to me to make sense to turn
Speaker 1: away from God when he's offering you the comfort and
Speaker 1: the power you need to make it through the time.
Speaker 1: My plea to you today, friends, is to give your
Speaker 1: hurt and give your heart.
Speaker 2: To Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: You know, Jesus didn't come to explain away your pain.
Speaker 1: He came to share it. And he says, come to me,
Speaker 1: you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will
Speaker 1: give you rest. He enters into our pain. He is
Speaker 1: a God who suffers with us, and he's here to
Speaker 1: walk with you through whatever pain it is. It may
Speaker 1: be physical, you may have a chronic illness. It may
Speaker 1: be emotional. You may have a handicap of some kind
Speaker 1: that bothers you. First Peter chapter four nineteen says this,
Speaker 1: if you're suffering according to God's will, keep on.
Speaker 2: Let me stop right there.
Speaker 1: Notice that verse. If you're suffering according to God's will.
Speaker 1: There are some Christians who think it's never God's will
Speaker 1: for you to suffer, that you should never have any pain,
Speaker 1: and if you don't have any pain in your life,
Speaker 1: it means you don't have enough faith. They are not
Speaker 1: telling you the truth. They're lying because the Bible says
Speaker 1: the exact opposite. First Peter four nineteen says, sometimes suffering
Speaker 1: is the will of God. It's not like you've sinned. No,
Speaker 1: that's what Job's friend said.
Speaker 2: Job.
Speaker 1: The reason you're in suffering is because you sin. God said, no,
Speaker 1: he hadn't sinn. He was the most righteous man on
Speaker 1: earth feet Peter four nineteen. If you're suffering according to
Speaker 1: God's will, sometimes you're going to suffer. Sometimes you're going
Speaker 1: to have a pain, and it's God's will. Keep on
Speaker 1: doing what is right and trust yourself to the God
Speaker 1: who made you or he will never fail you. He'll
Speaker 1: never fail you. Now let me close with a little
Speaker 1: self evaluation. Okay, I want you to just think about
Speaker 1: what's hurting you. Think of the pain in your life
Speaker 1: right now. That shouldn't take you very long. You need
Speaker 1: to say this, Father, say this to God. Father, are
Speaker 1: you using this pain to guide me? In a new direction.
Speaker 1: Are you using this pain to goad me and spur
Speaker 1: me into action. Are you using this pain to gauge
Speaker 1: me to show me what I need to work on?
Speaker 1: Are you using this pain to guard me, to guard
Speaker 1: me from something more harmful? Are you using this pain
Speaker 1: to grow me and make me more like you? Are
Speaker 1: you using it to inspect me, to correct me, to
Speaker 1: direct me to perfect me. I close again with First
Speaker 1: Corinthians one nine. This happened so that we might learn
Speaker 1: to trust not in ourselves, but in God. I want
Speaker 1: to challenge you to let whatever pain you're going through
Speaker 1: right now guide you into the caring arms of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Would you bow your head with me right now and
Speaker 1: let me lead you in a prayer. If you've never
Speaker 1: opened your life to Jesus Christ, are you're never sure
Speaker 1: that you've settled this issue of am I in the
Speaker 1: family of God? I want you to pray this prayer.
Speaker 1: Say say this aloud in your heart, in your mind.
Speaker 1: God knows what you're saying. Say God, you know the
Speaker 1: pain I'm going through right now. You know the pain,
Speaker 1: and today I realize that others may mean it for bad,
Speaker 1: but you mean it for good. In my life, to
Speaker 1: direct me and correct me, to perfect me, and inspect me,
Speaker 1: to protect me from something worse. God, thank you for
Speaker 1: being such a loving God. Thank you for loving me.
Speaker 1: Thank you that you care about my pain. That you're
Speaker 1: not an unsympathetic, un empathetic God. That Jesus you died
Speaker 1: on the cross and carried the pain of my sin,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to carry that punishment. Then, just say,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, as much as I know how, I open
Speaker 1: my life completely to you, and I give you every
Speaker 1: area of my life, the good, the bad, the ugly,
Speaker 1: the painful, the shameful, and I give it all to you.
Speaker 1: And I ask you to put a new heart in me,
Speaker 1: a new spirit, a new joy, a new purpose, a
Speaker 1: new passion, a new happiness. I want to be connected
Speaker 1: to you, Jesus Christ, for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: I want to learn to love you and trust you.
Speaker 1: And when I go through problems, and when I go
Speaker 1: through pain that makes no sense, help me to remember
Speaker 1: that you said you don't understand it now, but you
Speaker 1: will later what I'm doing. Help me to trust you.
Speaker 1: And I commit every area of my life to you,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Now I ask you to save me in
Speaker 1: Jesus' name, Amen,