Happy - Part Two - Blessed are Those Who Mourn

good morning to everyone and welcome to the well here at sts say how's that for an uplifting intro that a little video right there what we're talking about here for those who are just joining us today we're in week two of a series called happy and we are talking about different ways that we can be happy as given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and we're looking specifically at a passage from Matthew chapter 5 the beginning of the most famous sermon ever given on the planet the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave where he gave 8 ways to be happy now right off the bat some of you were like hey wait a minute is that allowed in church to talk about being happy like is that legal isn't that like against the code cuz aren't you supposed to talk about like isn't church like doing miserable and then like just suffer and then you know like hate yourself and hate your family and hate everyone around you and just be like a suffering miserable kind of a person and then be happy in heaven isn't that what Christianity is supposed to be well I say no because I say the Christianity is based on the life of Jesus Christ and I think if you look at Christ I don't think there was a happier person on the planet I don't think there's anyone who exuded joy and hope and life more than Jesus did and I have proof for it what group of people always love to follow Jesus around children right children don't like miserable people children like jolly fat men like Santa Claus who like to laugh and give away candy and the fact that children were always around Jesus shows Jesus was net Jesus lived a hard life did you suffered a lot but you never hear him complain you never hear the woe is me the pity party you never see him anyone interact with him and they left lower than they came you always see him picking people up giving people hope because Jesus was full of true joy and true happiness and what we're gonna look at in this series is from his own mouth what the secret to that happiness is we're doing our best in this series to take one like I like I said where he said in Matthew chapter 5 the Beatitudes the blessed are statements blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn the blessed our statements and we talked about last week about how those eight statements blessed okay oftentimes the word blessed can be translated happy some translations say happy are those some say blessed are those it comes from the Greek word Makarios and the word macarius whether you define a blessed or happy it means the type of happiness that we're not really used to in this world it means a type of happiness or the type of joy that is self sufficient it is independent of circumstances all right we talked about how they have a in Greece they have an island called Cyprus which they call the happy Isle the reason why they call it the happy Isle because you never have to leave the island to get anything that you want everything is contained right there well that's what's contained in that word Macarius when Jesus says that you can be blessed you can be happy it means it's the kind of happiness that is not dependent on your circumstances it's the kind of happiness that doesn't walk out the door when your boss walks in the door is the kind of happiness that lasts through the ups and downs of life is the kind of happiness that endures the hardships and the trials that's the kind of happy that we're talking about and that's the kind of happy that Jesus gave us a prescription for in Matthew chapter 5 that's why I mean particularly using the word happy not blessed because I feel like blessed has gotten a kind of a bad reputation in Christian circles blessed just means your life stinks and you just say I'm blessed okay and I just hopefully one day God will reward me in the end it's just basically a spiritualize form of denial when we say my life is blessed okay but we don't really mean it I'm talking about Jesus is telling us not how do you escape the problems of this world and not how to remove them all and find happiness despite them but how to find happiness in the midst of them long-term lasting the kind that endures the kind that like I said last week mother Teresa to find a life of holiness life of godliness she said a life of godliness this is a great quote is to do the will of God with a smile and I love that because that's what we're talking about here we're talking about real life happy okay we're not talking about sum over spiritual I talking about in the midst of the storm how we can find joy and happiness and like I said last week I'm kind of giving you a warning up front right off the bat I'm sitting here and I'm gonna talk about how to be happy based on how Jesus said how to be happy so you're like okay this is gonna be great like father anything's gonna give us very uplifting very encouraging like ways to be happy well right off the bat I told last week that jesus' prescription for happy as was prescription for many things is upside-down usually when he tells us how to find something it's upside-down what I mean by that is it's the opposite of the way that we would normally think about so for example last week we said that to have the kingdom of heaven to be blessed blessed are the poor poor in spirit for theirs the kingdom of heaven and poor is kind of like the opposite of the word that I wanted to hear I wanted to hear no Rich's is what makes me happy you said no it's actually poor but the right kind of poor poor in spirit which means for those who weren't here last week it means three things it means number one admit that I need help means number two ask God for that help and the number three accept the help that God sends in the form of others and true happiness the foundation of it is realizing I can't do it by myself no matter how hard I work matter how much money I got no matter how many letters are after my name or my business card is never gonna make me truly happy to find true happiness mit I can't do it ask God to help me do it and then willing to accept the help that he sends in the form of others upside down life today of all the statements that Jesus made in the Beatitudes I think today is the most upside-down of all the statements today is the one that you're gonna see that you're like no this is the exact opposite of what we've been trained to think our entire lives more than any other one and that is this blessed or happy blessed are those who mourn where they shall be comforted blessed are those who what mourn how many people set a goal for 2019 to more and more anybody this is gonna be the summer of mourning summer of mourning anybody on their to-do list anyone is like oh if only more mourning but that's exactly what Jesus prescribes as the path to comfort and happiness now i'ma tell you right off the bat here okay like I said this is gonna be some upside down stuff but what we're doing is we're trusting we're taking a step of faith right here that Jesus who lived the most happy life tells us the prescription for it and it's gonna be countered to what we've always thought but we're trusting that if I do what he did I will live as he lived okay sometimes we want the life of Jesus without doing what Jesus did to get there like we want the fruit of how Jesus lived without the hard work so we're gonna trust that if we do what he did we'll live as he lived and Jesus teaches us blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted comfort comes from morning are you sure Jesus I came up with a list of things that I thought comfort could more easily come from top of my list was ice-cream I thought it'd make more sense to say that true comfort comes from ice-cream I got getting a raise chopping not for me but maybe some people does that shopping okay a promotion okay for myself a demotion for my boss okay some of these things could be tar or increased comfort in life but no one who comes up with a list of things for comfort would ever add morning on that list that wouldn't be top ten that wouldn't be top 20 in fact if you're honest if you're honest from the minute you wake up just like me when the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep you do your best to avoid morning you do the rest to avoid any discomfort do your best to avoid any pain any sadness anything which makes me remotely uncomfortable we do our like our goal for the day is to avoid it and Jesus says that's actually what we should be driving towards today's message hardest one to comprehend most upside down today's message most game-changing ability to change your life and give you true freedom I truly believe that hardest one to comprehend hardest one to kind of digest and say comfort from morning happiness from sadness hardest one but I'm telling you if you get this one this is a game-changer and this can lead to new levels of freedom and joy and happiness in your life and I'll give you kind of the punchline right up front and then I will unpack it over the rest of the next half hour or so my path to comfort and happiness is to escape pain God's path is to embrace my path to happiness to joy to blessing to comfort is to escape pain God's path is to embrace it now let me preface it is not the will of God for you to be in pain start by saying that God does not desire your pain God does not want his children to suffer for no reason sometimes we have this idea that like God wants to give us suffering because somehow it makes us better people and God wants us to suffer and God wants us to suffer no let me be let me be right in front with you any suffering that you have in your life is a direct result of free will either your free will or somebody else's free will gone wrong any suffering and pain that you have and that I have is a result of my free will my own choices that have gone awry and that's the majority or somebody else's freewill that has hurt me so it is not God's will for you to live in pain however pain is not the goal but when in the hands of God pain can be a means to a goal while pain is never God's goal in your life pain can be a means to the goal that God has for your life as you think about it like a doctor okay I told you last week God is the first physician on this planet God is the true physician of our souls our bodies and our spirits as we say in the prayers a doctor's goal is not to give you shots to hurt you but in the hands of a wise physician a shot which causes pain can be for your healing and it's the same in God is God never desires pain for his children or suffering but they can be a means to an end when they're used the right way and when they're an embraced in the right way see we don't have that kind of we think the opposite we think here comes pain run like the wind we do our best to run away from pain to escape from it or if we can't escape what do we do we self-medicate anything to numb the pain anything to make it go away this is why for example we engage in self-defeating behaviors that we hate and that ruin our lives yeah we continue to go back to them and back to them and back to them to escape the pain things like alcohol abuse things like drug abuse things like pornography things like things that don't seem like that big a deal things like shopping compulsive shopping you know a compulsive shopper there's like the shoppers and the compulsive shopper things like overeating things like people come and say I'm just lazy I'm just lazy and sometimes maybe you are lazy but that's not laziness that's trying to hide from the pain when I just veg in front of the TV I'll do anything miss tracked myself but YouTube the social media the Facebook or whatever maybe in this world today you have enough options you never have to sit alone and face your pain you can always find some noise to distract yourself from the pain and that's what we do we self-medicate because we do anything to escape the pain and in the end let me ask you the self medication the running from the pain does it make you feel better anyone ever we do a show of hands anyone ever over ate ate themselves to oblivion like Golden Corral style overeating themselves and got woken up the next morning and said yes I feel great can't wait to do that one again anyone ever overspent over drink ain't never gone out for a night on the town and got wasted and got out got really high and woke up the next morning and said yeah that's that's that I feel great now yeah but why we still do it we do it because we don't want to face the pain and then we end up saying like st. Paul said it's not just you st. Paul said it st. Paul was a pretty strong dude then Paul said in Romans 715 what I am doing I do not understand how many can relate to that what I am doing I do not understand what I will to do that I do not practise but what I hate that I do for the good that I will to do I do not do but the evil that I will not to do that I practice and I know that sounds like a confusing sentence but you get it you relate to it because this is the I promise God I'll never do that again and then I do it again I promise God I'll never go there I'll never go online and do that again I'll never engage in that again I'll never again not pitch it because of you but because of me I hate the way it makes me feel and then we do it again if you've ever done a st. Paul is saying and ask yourself why am i doing it you ever ask yourself this question why am i doing why am i why am I continue to hurt myself wanna continue to put my light why continue to invest my time my energy and things that I know are destroying my life and my relationships and my future I believe the answer is to escape the pain I believe the answer is because there's a pain in our life that we don't want to embrace and we don't want to deal with so we rather just go over here and hide it hide from it or it comes over here so just go over here or here it isn't I'm stuck with it okay numb it somebody numb the pain give me one night brought to feel the pain give me just an hour what awful think about it but I feel good about myself and the end result give you another verse that maybe you can relate with proverbs 26 verse 11 this how we feel and I won't do a show of hands that I know how many people have felt like this I've felt like this you felt like this as a dog returns to his own vomit so a fool repeats his folly as a dog returns to his own vomit now as last week I am NOT going to stand up here on this stage and tell you what's wrong with you man how could you be so dumb and get your act together because that's not what Jesus did and that's not what I'm gonna do cuz I'm in the same boat as you the only difference is I got the notes in front of me and you have not okay I'm in the same boat as you were all in the same boat together so we're gonna do I'm gonna say to you like Isaiah said last week for those were your last week where Isaiah that passage where he said to the people why do you continue to eat bread that doesn't satisfy that's what that's what he asked me says why is it that you continue to spend money on bread that doesn't satisfy you the people were trying to make themselves happy with more food or with more money or with riches or with the pleasures of the night and and Isaiah said to them you eat that bread are you satisfied like it is your thirst quenched from that and if the answer is no why do you continue how and how long will you continue until you realize that that's not satisfying you fulfilling you that's not making you happy what we're gonna do here is now that I've thrown that out to you and asked you that same question is escaping the pain he's numbing the pain is it solving it you say collectively no then I say let's listen to what Jesus has to say and let's give this morning thing a try and let's see if we can embrace the way he's telling us to the things that have gone wrong in our life and let's see if that may make a difference in our comfort and our happiness we're gonna look an example from the life of st. Paul and about how st. Paul one time how to embrace a significant pain in his life all right and how it led ultimately to his healing and let's start off right the badge is little context on st. Paul you know that no one in Christianity is more significant to Christianity standing to in st. Paul okay you had Jesus that you had Saint Paul there was no one who was more significant and instrumental in the spreading of Christianity than st. Paul st. Paul was the guy who was given the task to preach the gospel to the Gentiles you had Jews and Gentiles in this world the Jews they had 12 guys the 12 apostles your job is to preach to all the Jews st. Paul your job is everybody else in this world like st. Paul had a high calling and a high mission and st. Paul when you're not preaching the gospel in your few minutes of free time go ahead and write half of a New Testament while you're at it if you don't mind something that's going to be read by generation after generation after generation st. Paul had a pretty good list big to-do list on his tasks like he had a lot in front of him and that was given to him by God so you think to yourself if there's anybody if there's anybody who God is gonna build a wall around him and protect him from the suffering and the pain it's gonna be st. Paul cuz he had a big mission friend so I'm gonna protect him so he can do all the stuff that I got for him like yeah that guy in the back whatever he doesn't have much so yeah and let him have the pain but I'm saying now this guy knows st. Paul I got to protect him and make sure that he's able to do the mission that I got for him well that's not exactly how God thinks but in the very beginning when st. Paul was converted okay Acts chapter 9 P Paul this is God speaking to in a nice he Paul is it chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles kings and the children of Israel that part is good we understand that part and then look at this where I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake not a good intro not a good intro from day one of your Christian life but I have a big mission for you and it's gonna include lots of suffering and I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake nobody suffered more in the st. Paul st. Paul a few times and his epistles speaks about his sufferings and he speaks about how he was rejected how he was beaten how he's in prison he said five times he was whipped if y'all remember the movie The Passion of the Christ when Jesus was ripped st. Paul was whipped out wave five times three times he was shipwrecked you would think one ship like one shipwreck would be more than enough to like that's enough for my life like one time stuck in the middle of the ocean that I've been to st. Paul three times once he was stoned and left4dead stoned with the stones okay and left for dead not the other kind of stone stoned in the sense that stoned in the sense that they took rocks and they threw it at him and they kept throwing at him and throwing on him and throwing on him and they finally stopped you know why cuz they thought he was dead and they said there's no reason to waste another Rock on this guy he's dead Saint Paul stood up one time brushed it off went back into the city and continued to preach the gospel nobody lived a harder life than st. Paul but here's think about st. Paul none of those beatings none of those shipwrecks none of those whippings none of those things knocked him down inside but there was one thing that almost did there was one thing that st. Paul speaks about in a passage in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 where he opens his heart and he says all that other stuff the worst stuff in the world that 1% of that stuff and we would quit that stuff didn't knock me down but there was something where st. Paul got pushed to the limit that's what he calls his thorn in the flesh we're gonna pick up the passage from 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 st. Paul says and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me a messenger of Satan to buffett me lest I be exalted above measure what is this thorn in the flesh okay you can go and read commentaries about this thorn in the flesh and you can there's differing opinions okay some people believe that st. Paul was struck with epilepsy okay and he used to have like seizures and you can imagine back then they didn't understand medicine the way we understand it today so if you were to have a seizure you know what they thought seizures were demons because you can imagine here st. Paul preaching the gospel and then all of a sudden has a seizure and starts foaming at the mouth and the people think he's possessed so this is this is very humiliating for st. Paul this is this is against his ability to do his job that God asked him to do it's very difficult to preach the gospel when people think you're demon-possessed okay this is this is not these two are not working together some people say that st. Paul okay he had like a disease in his eyes okay that's what he had a disease in his eyes and some people say that's a teaser - where's eyes used to leak you know that you know I juice or whatever it was that used to leak out of there there was nasty and disgusting and things like that some people say he had migraines okay kind of the bad kinds of people said he struggled with depression nobody really knows he didn't make it clear but there was something in the life of st. Paul that was painful that was humiliating that was debilitating so put your thorn in the flesh in light of that that it was painful physically that it was debilitating it stopped him from doing what he what he wanted to do what God wanted him to do and he was humiliating it caused him people to reject him and he uses the word right here a messenger of Satan to buffett me know buffett me means buffett means like to punch me it means to strike with a closed fist and that's what it means so what st. Paul is saying here he's saying like kind of like there's a bully in my life like every day I would get up and a bully would punch me in the face and I would say God enough and the bully would punch me in the face I'd say God help me and the bully would punch me in the face and study st. Paul had something in his life harder than shipwreck and stoned and beaten and imprisoned something that he says this is beating me daily beating me daily beating me daily like a bully and I can't take it anymore I give up but notice some of the language that st. Paul uses right here let's point out a few words right here will highlight them there's a word that's repeated twice in there and it's lest and I think that word lest is an important word why what does lest me it says and lest I should be exalted above measure the storing the flesh was given to me lest I be exalted above measure what does lest mean like if I say I want you to you know go to your house right away lest what's gonna come next yes something bad happening something worse than what I'm asking you to - in other words there's a purpose to it that if I say do this less something happen or less something doesn't happen that means that whatever it is that is a glazing wouldn't happen is worse than what I'm asking you to do there's a purpose for it it's not random can let me give you another word there's another word that should jump out to you it and then say like st. Paul you you you upside-down thinking st. Paul what's the other word that jumps out right to you there's certain verb how about giving given to me now it doesn't come clear into English as much as it wouldn't agree in the Greek there's two different ways to say given a positive way and a negative way the positive way would be like something was gifted to me the negative way would be like something was forced upon me like you would never say the negative way forced upon me if you're talking about like someone gifted me chocolates or like like the word the positive word would be how you'd used to describe like Christmas morning I was gifted whatever it may be Saint Paul uses the positive word not the negative word he doesn't say like God stuck me with this thing he doesn't say this thing was forced upon me he uses the same word but like I said you'd use if you got a new phone under the Christmas tree or a new mug for Father's Day maybe not among father's day but you know what I'm trying to say do you got a doughnut for Father's Day he's that same positive word that just was gifted to me I'm gonna put those together I'm gonna say this st. Paul how he embraced st. Paul's view towards the thorn in the flesh st. Paul German than me and you given for a purpose received as a present given for her purpose received as a present how you should change your view of your thorn in the flesh of the thing that God has stuck in your life receipt I'm sorry given for a purpose received as a present given for a purpose received as a present does that sound like how you break it sound like how you talk about your trials did sound like the words that come out of your mouth when someone says how are you and how's that thing going given for a purpose received as a present before you think that st. Paul was some superhuman who just you know enjoyed the beat down realize that this is what st. Paul is writing like kind of after the fact but in the moments st. Paul responded not necessarily this way right off the bat but he responded the same way that you and I would respond look at the next verse verse 8 concerning this thing this thing there's a thorn in the flesh concerning this thing I plead with the Lord three times that it might depart from me st. Paul did what you and I would do when bad stuff happens God take it away God get it out of here god I can't take it he pleaded with the Lord and for Saint Paul uses that strong word pleaded with the Lord and he said he pleaded three times now you look at this you say pleaded three times okay means like I prayed in the morning prayed after lunch and prayed before bed that's not what pleaded three times means it means not three prayers means three seasons of Prayer like I took a three-week period where I fasted I didn't eat except bread and water and I pleaded with the Lord for three weeks I didn't leave my room I prayed day and night and I pleaded with God I fought with God no answer and then a year later I got more courage and I got everyone around me and we pleaded together and we fasted together and nothing I didn't get in a third time talks about seasons of Prayer not talking about individual times of Prayer and the answer the first time was no answer the second time was no third time he got a slightly different answer third time he got a response and the response was second Corinthians 12:9 my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness that's a very polite way of saying no thank you god I can't take this God is too much God I can't go on like this my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness this is a nice way of saying st. Paul it's ain't going anywhere it's thorn in the flesh make room on the ouch that thorn in the flesh and go neighboring set up a bedroom for your thorn in the flesh because this is where it's gonna live and Jesus told him Paul the thorns not going anywhere but neither am i the thorns not going anywhere but neither am i the thorns gonna stake but I'm gonna stick they're the ones gonna give you pain but I'm gonna give you comfort the thorn you're gonna say is ruining my life but I'm gonna stay and you're gonna say best thing that ever happened to me in my life so my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in your weakness how would you respond to that how would you respond to that be honest you're a thorn in the flesh whatever it is you're your thing that I can't take it I can't take it too much God can't go on God get it out God my strength is made perfect in your weakness here to stay how would you respond and not just you but let's go back to st. Paul for a second how would you respond if your st. Paul st. Paul his entire life is dedicated to God st. Paul never asked for money st. Paul never asked to be famous st. Paul never asked for healing of his diseases Saint Paul never asked to escape from prison st. Paul never asked for anything the only thing Saint Paul ever prayed for if you read his epistles was the only thing he ever prayed for is the people that God sent him to it's the only thing the st. Paul ever prayed for st. Paul only prayed for the gospel st. Paul only cared about what God cared about and then one time like one time he has a request of God but God I didn't ask nothing all these years I've served you faithfully I went to prison for you I'm willing to die for you I'll do anything for you God one request after all these years and he gets to know how would you respond how do you respond anyone respond like what st. Paul says next and Paul says entrust that verse therefore he got his no from God therefore most gladly most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me he said I'm not gonna hide from my pain I'm not gonna try to remove my pain I'm not gonna try to resist my pain I'm gonna embrace my pain because with my pain comes the power of God so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna boast I'm gonna show off imma tell the world about how great the pain that God gave me is because it reveals the grace of God and the comfort of God as well so I would imagine some interactions would go like this the st. Paul hey Paul I heard you got this embarrassed meaning that happened to you I heard this bad stuff happens to you and I heard that all this stuff is going on in your life and you phone with the mouth and I heard and I heard and I heard you don't st. Paul would say or let me tell you about it have a seat let me tell you oh and this happened oh and then this happened and then this and then God did st. Paul I heard you get seizures I've heard sometimes you can't speak st. Paul it's a absolutely happens all the time but you know what I have the grace right now to speak and let me tell you God loves you and let me tell you what he messages for you st. Paul I heard that your eyes leak juice st. Paul was saying here's the rad form here you take a blessing from it right here if you want right here I'll show you all the juice because despite this eye stuff that's happening God still gives me the grace every single day how about this way hey Paul I heard your sermon on prayer I read what you wrote about prayer and then I heard you prayed three seasons and God didn't hear your prayer I think st. Paul would say you know st. Paul would say he'd say not exactly God heard my prayer and because he is wise and good and caring and loves me so much he did not give me what I asked for he gave me better I asked for physical healing he gave me spiritual I asked for healing from my body he gave me healing for my spirit I asked for something that would be here today and then gone tomorrow and he gave me the power and the grace from above earlier I said give him for a purpose receive as a present rest of that equation st. Paul teaches us unleashes God's power or your trial in your life your pain that you're trying to escape the self-medicating that you're trying to do the number to get it out of here to escape we need to learn to embrace it and embrace it means realize that is given for a purpose I receive it as a present and when I do that something mysterious happens it unleashes God's power in my life this isn't easy what I'm telling you to do I don't don't think for one second that is easy for me but I got this thing figured out I got it figured out like in an intellectual like I know but practically I can't think of anything harder than I'm telling anybody to do I'm telling you that the thing that makes you cry at night the thing that makes you pain all day whether that's that that's something at home that's a physical whether that is a relational whether that's like a ruined career whether that's like a mistaken I don't know what it is I'm telling you the thing that you do your every minute of the day to escape from I'm telling you to embrace it not just accept it but embraced you know there's another expression that Jesus said to st. Paul when he converted him on that road he said Paul they called him salts already's name time Saul it is hard for you to kick against the goat I heard that expression before to kick against the goads you know what that means you know the goat is like toad with a g goat's a goat was like a metal ball on a stick don't think like I stick with a metal ball with spikes all around it so a stick with a metal ball with spikes basically they would use it to like you know the horses are the ox whatever to get them to move like I stubborn one they stick them with this thing imagine that you had this spiky ball go think and it's right here imagine this thing right here is a spiky Gope thing and i wham kicked it as hard as I could what's gonna do wanna do to myself and then let's say I'm so angry at it cuz it hurt my foot when I kicked it so I kick it even harder and I hate you you keep hurting my foot every time I kick you so I head got it as hard as I can all I'm doing is hurting myself you know if you really have a spike that's causing that much pain you know what your best bet is get close to it be close to it but the further you are you and you run right into it you're only causing yourself more pain well let me be honest with you if I can be honest I don't know what you're going through in life but I know this but hiding from your problems they're trying to escape the pain doesn't remove the pain that this does not make my problems go away this doesn't make anything better it may make me feel better look at all the problems look they're gone no they're not gone you refusing to accept your hardship doesn't remove your hardship I see this all the time I see people in hospital beds and the reality is in front of them and they don't accept it and I'm telling you that not accepting what the doctors telling me is wrong with me doesn't remove what's wrong with me not accepting the reality of the situation of the hardship doesn't remove it it only means it only means that I will endure it alone without the grace of God give him for our purpose not that I like you give him for our purpose receive as a present unleashes the power of God and apparently might work for the happiness thing - look what he says this next verse he says therefore I take pleasure in infirmities it's a strange sentence you may never have said that one before I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in needs and persecutions in distresses for Christ's sake when I am weak then I am strong he embraced it and unleashed God's power now let me just kind of caveat then I'll go back and kind of wrap this message up right here but just one small caveat and this is for the person who's sitting there you should probably many of you sit in there and say what about faith what about faith what about faith Jordan we have faith and shouldn't we pray and we believe that God is gonna remove it shouldn't we believe it shouldn't we have faith I'm not telling you not to pray about your problem I'm not telling you not to believe not to have fake that's not what I'm saying all I'm saying is this and st. Paul would be this this would be a great example st. Paul had faith no one spoke about faith more than the Saint Paul and believing in the power of prayers and no one works and in st. Paul but i'ma say this and I'm saying this with all my due respect and just please take it as a message from God not as for me it's not missing anything personal but just take it as a message from God be careful it is easy it is easy it is easy for selfishness and stubbornness to disguise itself as faith be careful it is easy for selfishness and stubbornness to disguise itself as faith st. Paul had faith st. Paul prayed st. Paul believed st. Paul persisted st. Paul st. Paul st. Paul st. Paul and there comes a point in time where God says no and I'll tell you what I think true faith is I think true faith means knowing when to stop praying just as much as it means knowing when to persistent prayer true faith means knowing when God has said no and it's an to the discussion I'll give you an example parents we get this one when our children we want our children to ask us absolutely ask for whatever you like we want our children ask when I say no I want the asking to stop and especially if we asked and we discussed and we said no now it's not faith now it's kind of selfishness and now it's kind of stubbornness and now it's kind of disrespectful miss be careful true faith isn't knowing necessarily when to persist but sometimes it's knowing when to stop praying let's leave that faith let's go back to st. Paul let's go back to embracing the pain I told you in the beginning this one can be a game changer and by kind of the silent hush over the crowd here today I think it I think God made that clear this one could be a game changer for you this exact opposite how we live we spend all of our lives the very thing but the thing that we spend all of our lives to avoid to numb to escape to self-medicate just think of how many I don't know the answer to this question how many self-destructive habits are in our lives because we refuse to embrace our pain because we're constantly seeking to escape the pain message for today is to stop kicking against the goads stop running from the things that God might be bringing into our lives to heal us and to reveal his power in us and when you do that like st. Paul something mysterious happens there's a mystery of suffering there's a mystery of suffering when you embrace it as a gift from God there's a mystery but I can't explain it's not a one plus one equals two but it's something that is clearly written about in st. Paul makes it clear for us right here the mystery is this that the pain doesn't go away but somehow joy comes from the pain that the problem doesn't go away but the purpose is revealed in it the thorn becomes a gift and the morning turns into comfort and happy from above my hope is that we can turn where are you God how come God you left me God if too much God you know how the song and dance goes that we can do like Jesus said right here blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are those who embrace as opposed to escape blessed are the ones who know that God is never against me and I'm never against him it is never me against God or God against me we are on the same team and if God allows certain things in our life that we have prayed and we have struggled and we have tried to get it out of our life and God keeps bringing it back bringing it back then maybe instead of running from it seeking to escape it I will embrace it I will not let my identity be a victim I will not let my identity in life beak my life stinks because of that and my whole life is because of that my whole life is a reaction to that pain that I wish wasn't there I will not allow that I will embrace the pain I don't know how I'm gonna do that but I know I will do that and when I do that I trust the words of Jesus will come true but blessed happy are those who learn to embrace the morning and the pain for they shall be comforted let's stand together and say a prayer in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen Heavenly Father we thank you from the bottom of our heart thank you Lord who are Almighty God there is no pain that you cannot turn to joy there's no morning that you cannot turn to comfort and you Lord in your upside-down sorta way are calling us today to like a a challenging message to embrace the things Lord that we spend all of our energy and all of our time resisting bleats Lord today we will trust in your word and we trust the way that if we do as you did we will live as you lived that if we do the things that you are commanding us to do we will receive the promises that are attached to them so I pray Lord for all my brothers and sisters who are standing here before you but you would help each one of us Lord to embrace the very thing that you know we are struggling to do Lord and we trust that you will give us the comfort and the joy and the true happiness brew that you pray these things in the mighty name of your son with the prayers of all of your saints here says we pray thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil 1 in Christ Jesus our Lord for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen

Channel: STSA Church

Views: 5,660

Rating: 4.860465 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: a0ZbpUfBJuw

Length: 43min 24sec (2604 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2019