How God Can Bless a Broken Heart With Pastor Rick Warren

well hello Saddleback I'm really glad you're here this weekend have I told you lately that I love you good to see you didn't we have a great Mother's Day last weekend they're really really great weekend I want to say hi to all of our campuses hello San Clemente hello Rancho Capistrano hello Laguna Woods hello Irvine Huntington Beach Corona Anaheim Los Angeles Hong Kong Berlin Manila Buenos Aires and everybody else we love you very very very much this weekend I'm at look at Saddleback Los Angeles because it's the one-month anniversary of that church we're meeting there in the Palladium the iconic Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard and I'm very excited about that if you're taking on your message notes this weekend we return to our series that I'm calling the keys to a blessed life and we're looking at the eight Beatitudes of Jesus as we go through the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse now the fact of life is that life is tough everybody agree with that it's not easy life is tough life is hard life is difficult since Adam sinned the world was broken and everything on the planet is broken nothing works perfectly I said this many time your body doesn't work perfectly though weather doesn't work perfectly we've been in fires all this week the economy doesn't work perfectly no relationship works perfectly your marriage doesn't work perfectly and life is full of losses we have defeats and we have disappointments this is not heaven that's why we pray thy will be done on earth as in heaven because in heaven there are no defeats there are no disappointments but on earth nothing works perfectly all the time so we have trials and tribulations we have sorrow and we have suffering we have problems and pressures we have as I said defeats and disappointments now how do you rise above the inevitable losses in your life how do you rise above them well today we come to the second beatitude it's Matthew chapter 5 verse 4 and Jesus says this God blesses those who mourn for they will be comforted now in the 8 ways to be blessed by God the second way this seems so ludicrous when you think about it so unnormal so irrational when he says the way to be blessed is to mourn what in the world does he mean by that in other words the way to be happy is to be sad that that just seems like a great reversal what does he mean by this God blesses those who mourn well that's what we're gonna look at this weekend on how to handle the losses of life and how God blesses a broken heart now I don't know what you're going through right now I hope you're going through relatively easy time but you may not some of you came to service this weekend all churning inside you've got conflicts you got chaos you've got a bad health report you just got laid off you've had a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend husband/wife they're there the money isn't there where you need and and you're under tension and many people watching online right now there are the things you've had a loss in your life or you've had a death in your life if you had something that has caused you to have grief now this last year's you know i-i've gone through a year-long journey with grief since Matthew died and I've learned a lot I've learned a lot about grief that I didn't even know a year ago and what I want to do this weekend is just kind of summarize a few of those ideas I think someday I'll probably write a book on because I've learned so much about it but I want to just give you a few things on how to be blessed in a broken world now let me let me give you a couple things write these down here's just a couple of insights before we actually get into it one of them is this God doesn't expect me to be happy all the time that's just a fact of life God doesn't expect you to be happy all the time there's this myth that Christians if you're a believer if you know Jesus you should be always smiling always happy always cheerful skipping the hills and picking flowers and talking about peace and love no that's Rainbow Brite not a Christian okay and when you become a follower of Jesus it doesn't mean you become a Pollyanna or an auntie Little Orphan Annie and the Sun will come up tomorrow and it's always up up into the pool and you're always happy no no you're not in fact the Bible says in Ecclesiastes three four there's a time for everything there's a time for everything and there's a season for every activity under heaven in other words life is a series of opposites there's a time to weep there's a time to laugh it's a time to mourn and there's a time to dance and so the Bible says that sometimes weeping is appropriate sometimes mourning is appropriate sometimes grieving is appropriate because the fact is the world is filled with a lot of sadness all you have to do is read the paper and read about little girls getting kidnapped and fires and murders and Wars and all kinds of things there's a lot of pain on this planet and sometimes the only appropriate logical response to life is grief God doesn't expect you to simply grin and bear it to stuff your emotions and the smile in the middle of all of the storms of life no in fact the Bible says blessed are those who mourn God blesses you when you grieve why does he do that well we're gonna we're gonna look at that now a lot of people think that grief is only for funerals like you know if you lose a loved one then then you grieve but the fact is there are a lot of losses in life there are thousands of losses you can lose your health you can lose your job you can lose your money you can lose your reputation you can lose your energy you can lose a dream there are thousands of different losses in life and God says the only appropriate response to the losses of life is not to fake it but to face it and not to go around grinning but to actually grieve there's a time for every activity under heaven I actually went through a study this week of what the Bible says we're supposed to mourn and grieve and I'm not gonna get into that that would be two or three sermons but the Bible says I'm on to mourn my losses which is um things bad things that happen to me and the Bible says on to mourn my disappointments which are good things that didn't happen to me did you hear that good things that didn't happen to you though that's a reason to mourn the Bible says I'm to mourn my sins that I am to grieve over my sins the Bible says I'm to grieve and mourn over the suffering in the world and not be you know blase about it the Bible says I'm actually to grieve for my friends who don't know Jesus who are spiritually lost and there are a lot of things the Bible tells us to grieve over but God doesn't expect you to be happy all the time second thing write this down is that grief is essential to my health grief is essential to my help it's essential to my emotional health to my spiritual health to my physical health and to my mental health in fact if you never grieve about anything if you're never sad about anything it means one of three things a you're out of touch with reality because there's a lot of things to be sad about in this world or be you are out of touch with your own emotions and you're living in denial or see you don't love because when you love and you see sad things that makes you grieve now grief is a painful emotion but it's a healthy emotion and it's a helpful emotion and it is God's gift it's the tool that God gives us to get through the transitions of life I've told you this before there is no growth in your life without change you can't grow without change there is no change without loss because you lose some of the old for the new there is no loss without pain and there is no pain without grief to go through life without grieving would be like a mother who says I want to have a baby without going through the pain of labor it isn't gonna happen it isn't gonna happen now there are two unhealthy reactions to the losses of life one is repression and the other is suppression repression is when I can't just unconsciously try to block a painful thought out of my mind that's repression I unconsciously try to block a pain painful thought out of my mind suppression is when I consciously try to block a pain I'm not gonna think about that I'm not gonna think about that I'm not gonna think about when I consciously try to block a painful thought out of my mind both of these are denials when you go through a tough time when your heart is hurting when your heart is breaking God doesn't want you to suppress it God doesn't want you to repress it God wants you to express it to friends and confess it to him and when you do that you're on the road to healing I want you to write this down if I don't let it out I will act it out if I don't let it out in healthy ways I'm gonna act it out in unhealthy ways some of you were hurt many years ago growing up maybe your parents divorced maybe you were abused maybe you were hurt by something somebody said about you and it hurt very very deeply but as a child you didn't know how to grieve healthy you didn't know how to grieve good so you just pushed it down and you stuffed it down and you've never grieved over that hurt well you need to go back and grieve over why because if you don't grieve the losses of life you get stuck at that stage let me say that again this is one of the most important things you're ever gonna learn when you don't grieve when you don't go through grief and a paint when pain happens in your life and you don't let it you know you don't feel it you push it down you get stuck emotionally at that stage and you spend the rest of your life reacting to something that happened a long time ago and you're taking it out on the people around you now and that's not fair it's unhealthy to stuff it you've heard me say this before when I swallow my grief my stomach keeps score if I don't talk it out I take it out on my own body or on other people and if I don't let it out in healthy ways then I'm gonna act it out in unhealthy ways and when you swallow negative emotions your body gets sick no I've said many times it's not just what you eat it's what eats you that makes you sick David talked about this in Psalms noticed on your outline david says in psalm 32 verse 3 when I kept things to myself I felt weak deep inside me and I moaned all the day long now circle the word moan when you go through a loss in life you'll lose a job you lose a friend you lose a deal you lose something in your life that you were hoping would happen or something you had and you lost it you lose the marriage you can either mourn or you can moan moaning is negative mourning is positive moaning is having a pity party mourning is calling out to God in your grief and in your pain Psalm 39 verse 2 David says I was silent and I held my peace to no avail and my distress only grew worse if you don't grieve the losses in your life if you if you're too busy and you just have to stuff it I can't think about it you try to do the Clint Eastwood you know strong silent type or just grin and bear it and you press on and you don't even stop to mourn a loved ones death if you don't do that then what happens is he says my distress only grew worse so what am I saying the things that happened to you around you the bad things happened they're not your choice but grief is a choice and it's a healthy choice and when you choose to let it out you have to choose to allow yourself to feel the sad emotions so well I don't like feeling sad know you don't but not everything that's helpful feels good not everything that's healthy feels good if you don't mourn the losses of life you get stuck at that stage now this weekend what I want us to look at is how God blesses broken hearts because the second beatitude jesus says this God blesses those who mourn now I want God to bless your life I want God to bless your life in spite of all the bad things that have happened and in spite of all the bad things that are gonna happen and in order for God to bless your life Jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted how does God comfort me when I grieve I'm an authority on this one after this last year I can speak from experience on how God comforts and as I've looked back over my life in the last year I see six ways that God blesses a broken heart since Matthew died I have cried every single day since he died that's not a sign of weakness that's a sign of love deep love cares deep love is strong so how do you get through you don't get over it a lot of people think well I'm just gonna get over this grief no you're not gonna get over if it's serious if you're married for a certain number of years and then you divorce you don't get over it you get through through it if you have a loved one a husband and wife who dies you don't get over that you get through it now you can't go over grief you can't go under grief you can't go around grief you got to go through the grief and if you're scared to express emotion and you refuse to go through it that Isis said that's where you get stuck but how do I get unstuck you let God help you let God comfort you blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted and how does God comfort us six ways write these down number one the first way God blesses a broken heart is God draws Us close to himself he draws us in close to himself look at these verses Psalm 34 verse 18 the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and he saves those whose spirits have been crushed when you were grieving you often feel like God's a million miles away but he's not a million miles away he's never been any closer what you feel and what's real are not the same thing not everything you feel is real and not everything that's real do you feel the Bible says God is close to the brokenhearted he's paying attention he's not aloof he's not distant Hebrews 13:5 I will never leave you Circle that never that means even in your worst pain it means even in your most embarrassing disgrace it means even in your most massive failure even in the thing you're most ashamed of in your life I will never leave you and I will never abandon you in second corinthians 6:10 says this our hearts ache but at the same time we have the joy of the Lord what does that mean that's the difference Jesus makes if you don't have Jesus in your life then God isn't close to you at that moment and you're on your own you don't have any other resources you're there to handle the pain by yourself God never intended for to handle the pain by yourself first the Bible says God draws Us close to himself and then here's the second thing write this down God grieves with us God grieves with us now the reason you have the ability to grieve is because you are made in God's image you're not an animal animals a doesn't grieve and a cow doesn't grieve and birds don't grieve and snails and whales don't grieve but human beings grieve why because we're made in the image of God the only reason you have any emotion at all is because God is an emotional God the Bible tells us that God grieves the Bible tells us that God weeps when he sees in humanity on earth he weeps when God sees us in it he weeps when God sees wars destroying people when God sees this planet being destroyed God weeps God grieves and we're made in God's image in the Bible says God weeps with us in other words he's God as a suffering God and God as a sympathetic God he's not aloof he's not authentic he's standing not standing on the sidelines he suffers with us look at this verse up here on the screen I said 53 verse 3 says this Jesus was a man of sorrows have you ever seen that verse Jesus it's out of Isaiah's prophecy was a man of sorrows acquainted with bitterest grief he knew suffering firsthand so when you come to Jesus it's not like Jesus does I have no idea what you're talking about when your heart is breaking and you're in pain it's not like Jesus going I don't understand it I don't get that just buck up and put on a happy face know Jesus was a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief let me just give you one example there on your outline when his friend Lazarus had died the Bible says in John 11 when Jesus saw a Lazarus sister sobbing and he saw how all those with all those with work he was crying also his heart was touched and it was deeply moved then Jesus started crying see how much he loved Lazarus they say circle the word love you know I told you that that grief is actually an evidence of love and the more you love the more you're gonna grieve about things if you're a pathetic if you're callous you don't have any love in your life you don't care what happens to anybody else it doesn't bother you you don't grieve about the tragedy even your next-door neighbor if you don't love them you don't care the more you love the more you're gonna understand grief and it says Jesus started crying you know the shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35 it's two words Jesus wept John 11:35 that's your memory verse for the week okay everybody can do that said John 11:35 and what did they say jesus wept and where is that John 11:35 that's the shortest verse in the Bible you just memorize the Bible verse it's only two words Jesus wept but what does it say it says we have a suffering God we have a God who sympathizes who understands who knows us and the Bible says Jesus started crying now let me just say to the guys guys we're not very good at grief it's not a macho thing we don't like negative feelings men don't like to feel negative they don't like bad things they don't certainly don't like sorrow and we're taught growing up you know in fact parents you need to stop teaching your kid to stuff their emotions because one of the first things parents do stop your crying stop the crying stop your crying really dude is that what you really want you want to teach people to stuff their emotions the Bible says Jesus started crying sadness is not weakness Jesus was the strongest man who ever lived a showing for a man to show emotion is not a sign of weakness it's actually a sign of strength weak men are scared of their emotions weak men are afraid of tears it freaks them out they go nutty why because it scares them when you're a strong man you're not afraid of emotion you're not afraid to show it you're not even afraid to cry Jesus was the strongest man who ever lived so never be embarrassed never be embarrassed by tears in fact the Bible says Jesus was sent to comfort us look at this Isaiah 61 verse 2 & 3 the Bible says he has sent me Jesus to comfort all who mourn to give those who mourn in Zion joy and gladness instead of grief and a song of praise instead of sorrow so the first two ways that God blesses a broken heart is he draws us closer to himself he says I'm gonna be with you you're not gonna go through this on your own and number two I'm gonna feel it with you the pain you feel in that separation God feels it the pain you feel in that loneliness God feels it the pain you feel in that rejection God feels it the pain you feel in that embarrassment that disgrace God feels it he is with you and he is feeling it with you now there's a third thing that God does in blessing our broken hearts and that is this God gives us a church family for support God never meant for you to go through life on your own and God says I didn't attend for you to go through grief you know the old statement that when you share a joy it's doubled and when you share a sorrow it's halved when you carry it all yourself you're carrying a load that God never intended for you to have when something bad happens to you and you say I'm not gonna tell anybody about this I'm gonna keep it a secret I'm gonna keep it to myself you have just broken one of the principles of God's Word God says we're meant to grieve in community we healing comes in groups healing comes in the church healing comes in community we're better together you weren't meant to carry it on your own look at this verse Romans 12 5 10 and 15 three verses in Romans chapter 12 in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others be devoted to each other like a loving family rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn now these are commands and if you call yourself a follower of Christ they're commanded for you in Christ we form one body that's the church the church is the family of God and it's the body of Christ and the Bible says each member belongs to all the others now I'm not gonna ask you to do this but you could turn to the people on either side and say you belong to me you might have a few marriage proposals but we belong to each other we are brothers and sisters in God's family we're part of the body of Christ and then it says we are to be devoted to each other like a loving family and how do we how are we devoted we sympathize each other when you have a victory I shouldn't be jealous I should celebrate your success and when you have a defeat I shouldn't gloat over that I should mourn with those who mourn and I'm not gonna go in this because you've heard me talk about it foul thoughts but you need a small group if you don't have a small group you have no safety net when the rogue winds come I would not be standing before you today if it weren't for my small group my small group the one I've been in 11 years walked me through this last year when my son took his life my small group was there in the darkest days of my life they were there just being the Ministry of presence they didn't have to say anything they didn't have to give me an advice they just showed up who are you doing that for who knows that you would show up in their crisis and who has that same kind of commitment to you you need to get in a small group and Saddleback has you know now eight thousand plus small groups and we actually have specialized support groups every kind of crisis you could imagine you name a crisis that people go through we've got a support group for it there is no reason at all for you to go through the pain on your own it's just your own pride that will keep you from getting involved in the support the Bible says God gives us a church family for support we're to rejoice with those rejoice and mourn with those who mourn 1st Thessalonians 5:11 says comfort each other and give each other strength now let me give you a couple suggestions because right now you're in one of two positions you're either going through pain yourself and you need comfort or you're not going through pain and you need to comfort others you either need comfort or you need to be comforted you need to be comforted or you need to be a comforter you either need help or you need to help either way this is a message that you need to be using if you're not in major pain right now you need to be thinking how can I follow what Jesus tells me to do and comfort the people and pain around me well first you got to be aware and if you care you'll be aware there are people in pain sitting on your row and you don't even know what their pain is if you care you'll be aware let me give you two suggestions for comforting people when they go through any kind of loss financial loss physical loss health loss loss of a loved one or anything let me just give it to you write these down number one never minimize another's pain the pain of others never minimize others pain Kay was talking the other day we were in London and she was speaking and she said one of the words you can delete from your vocabulary when you're talking to somebody in pain is the word at least and she told me about a lady a mother who had lost a child through drowning and a neighbor came over and in a meaningful attempt to comfort said well at least you're young enough to have another are you kidding me I'm sure what that mama said I'm not wanting another job I want my child back I won't match out back don't tell me well at least you've got three other kids are you kidding me well at least you've got your eliminate the phrase at least from your vocabulary when talking to somebody in pain it doesn't help it's not your trying to minimize the pain by pointing out something good just never minimize the pain of others and and I would say again parents stop trying to teach your kids to stop it don't cry now you know the typical reaction when somebody's in pain we try to fix it immediately don't be in a hurry to fix anything you don't need to fix it God will fix it and do time what you need to do is just be there and be aware and care so never minimize the other thing is never rush people never rush people pain and grief takes time and nobody can figure out how long the grief is gonna take for any particular thing in your life but you I can't tell you what's the appropriate time to grieve for anything in your life you're just gonna have to figure that one out yourself and it's different for everybody else you know in marriages the death of a child is often the predictor of a divorce in fact marriages that have the death of a child don't have a pretty good rate of staying together kay and I knew that statistic and when Matthew died we determined that we were going to let this draw us closer to each other rather than divide us and it was all because of one thing showing grace to each other and realizing whatever you're feeling right now is okay and I don't try to talk Kay out of her feelings as she doesn't try to talk me out of mine and we just enter into each other's pain a feeling is neither right or wrong it's just a feeling let me see that one again a feeling is never right or wrong it's just a feeling so husband's quit trying to talk your wife out of feelings and wives quit trying to talk your husband's out of feelings feeling is neither right and wrong just a feeling and and so you show grace to each other and you you never rush people Kay wrote a column our little post in facebook a couple weeks ago about how she was starting to feel people kind of rushing her and said you know when you're gonna go back to teaching and you know when you're gonna be back on the stage and and you know and and and kind of like aren't you over it yet and and she just stopped trying to push people get over it she wrote this little post did it hit a nerve over 3 million people reposted it why because that's the way anybody who deep pain feels they understand don't tell me to get over you don't get over it you get through it you get through it so God gives us a family and we're not to minimize and we're not to rush the people in our lives there's a fourth way that God blesses broken hearts all right he he gives us a church family he gives us his own presence he grieves with us number four God uses grief to help us grow God uses grief God uses pain even to help us grow and he does it in three ways here three verses that illustrate three different ways first God uses pain to get our attention CS Lewis wrote God whispers to us in our pleasure but he shouts to us in our pain pain is God's megaphone pain is saying hello we rarely change when we see the light we change when we feel the heat here's what the Bible says proverbs 20 verse 30 sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways that's in the today's English version anybody agree with that verse yeah sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways so God uses grief to help us grow by getting our attention second way he brings good out of bad one of the most famous verses in the Bible's Romans 8:28 we know we know not guess not hope we know that in all things not some not just the good in all things God works in all things God works for the good of those who love him it's an opportunity to grow in character every time you go through pain you don't you can't control the pain you go through you may have chronic pain and that pain may be with you for years and years and years you can't always control that but you can decide whether it's gonna make you bitter or better with it's gonna be a stepping stone or it's gonna be a stumbling block God brings good out of bad and the third thing he does is he prepares us for eternity look at this next verse 2nd Corinthians 4 17 and 18 these troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory what troubles the pain you're going through right now these troubles that sickness that sadness that suffering that lack that loss that pain that pressure that problem these troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like like nothing like nothing things that are seen don't last forever but things that are not seen are eternal and that's why we keep focused on the things that can't be seen you've heard me say before you're not taking your car to heaven you're not taking your China to heaven you're not taking your clothes to heaven you're not taking your career to heaven but you are taking your character you're taking you and so God's more interested in your character development than in your comfort why because comforts gonna be on for trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions a year you have it this is the get ready stage this is the learning stage this is the warm-up act this is the school as a preschool and God says these troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that's a comfort you see studies have shown that the people who were in the concentration camps in World War two ostrich bucking wall Dachau Ali's country that many died but some survived and those that survived found meaning and purpose in their pain that those who saw no meaning of purpose gave up you see you can handle an enormous amount of pain when you can realize there's a good purpose in it like labor and having a baby but when you don't see any purpose in the pain then it's easy to give up when the pain is unceasing when the pain never stopped when the pain keeps going you need to see God's purpose and what does God doing first is he trying to get my attention second is he trying to bring good out of bad third is he preparing my character for heaven is he giving me an opportunity to grow in Christ's likeness things that are seen don't last forever but things that are not seen are eternal number five the fifth way that God comforts us when we mourn is that God gives us the hope of heaven and this one has been particularly beautiful and meaningful to me this last year that this life is not all there is that this is just the warm-up act and that we're living for so much more the amount of time you're gonna spend on earth is really quite small you're only gonna get 8090 at the most maybe a hundred years that's nothing nothing it's gonna be over before you realize it it's nothing compared to millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of years in heaven the Bible says we have the hope of heaven if there were no hope of heaven I would be in despair because there's just too much bad in the world there's too many rapes too many people getting molested too many children being abused too many Wars too many people having being tortured too many people being burned up by by chemical and all kinds of things but the fact is the Bible says 1st Thessalonians 4:13 talking about believers who die Paul says we don't want you to be ignorant about believers who died we don't want you to grieve like the people who have no hope Circle the people who have no hope there's two kinds of grief you can grieve with hope or you can grieve without hope let me tell you you want the first one as a pastor I have done I don't know hundreds and hundreds under I don't know maybe thousands I don't know how many funerals that I've I've done I don't know how many times I've stood at the bedside of somebody taking their last breath I have been at the funerals and looked in the faces of people who had no hope when a loved one died and I've seen the terror on their face and the despair on their face you see the test of your faith the test of your belief system the test of your worldview is not how you handle the parties of life the test of your worldview is how you handle the failures and how you handle the funerals and how you handle the deaths of life that's the acid test the Bible says we have a hope and so we grieve but we grieve with hope when a Christian dies why do we grieve I mean there that that Christian is going to heaven they're going where they're made for they're going where they're gonna spend eternity and they're going where you're gonna go to if you know the Lord so why do we agree we're not grieving them in a funeral we're grieving us we miss him we're now grieving them my son Matthew for 27 years was tortured by mental illness and it was agony and honestly when he died I grieved his extremely painful life more than I grieved his extreme only painful death because I know today he has no fear he has no pain he has no depression he has he is every one of his questions has been answered he has joy he has the understanding everything he's always one why was I made like this why did why didn't I get well all those questions were answered I'm not grieving the fact that he's in heaven I grieve the fact that I miss him I want my son back I miss him now and so when a Christian grieves we grieve in a very very different way than the rest of the world we grieve with hope non-believers grieve without any hope and that's disastrous it's devastating it's debilitating it's despairing what is our hope revelation 21 verse 4 says this God will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things will have passed away I am looking forward to that day so much it's one of the things that allows me to go to places like Africa and see people starving from poverty and allows me to go into inner city and see people being beat up and abused and misused and allows me to see all the pain in the world which could be debilitating and it's depressing nature if I didn't know that one day God is gonna settle the score he's gonna even the odds he's gonna balance the accounts and one day in heaven God's gonna wipe away every tear and there will be no more death and there will be no more mourning and there will be no more suffering and no more crying and no more pain for the old order will have passed away that is one of the six hopes that blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted finally there's one more thing and this is a big one God uses our pain to help others there's a purpose in your pain this is called redemptive pain this is the highest and best use of the pain you go through God does not want you to waste a hurt god never wastes the hurt but we often do because we're not willing to use it to help other people God uses our pain to help others this is the highest and best use who can better help the mother of a special-needs child then another mother of a special-needs child who can better help somebody who's lost a son or daughter in a war than somebody who lost a son or daughter in a war who can better help somebody who lost a limb than somebody who's lost a limb who could better help somebody who has gone through the pain of an addiction or a marriage failure or molestation or any of the other evils in the world then somebody who went through that God does not want you to waste your hurt this is redemptive hurt he wants you to redirect your focus 2nd Corinthians 1 for God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others with the same comfort we receive from God now listen very closely your greatest ministry will come out of your deepest hurt you're my you might write this down my greatest ministry will come out of my deepest hurt because you could relate you could say been there done that went it I had a mother who was abusive I had a dad who was distant and left the family I had a failure in this area or that area your greatest ministry will come out of your deepest hurt you see we think the world is impressed by how we handle prosperity but the world is actually impressed by how we handle adversity we think that it is our success that gives us credibility to be a witness but God says no it is our suffering that gives us credibility you would not believe the open doors that have happened in my life since Matthew died and when I began to journal about it on social media people began to come out of the woodwork and some people you wouldn't believe and said I've never told this to anybody else we think that Fame earns respect but actually it's faithfulness in tough times and here's the bottom line I'll say it again we're in a broken world and so every day nothing works perfectly and that means every day you need to be either you either need comfort or you need to comfort others right now you're in one of two categories put yourself on it right now you either need help because you're in really bad pain or you need to help others and maybe just maybe God wants to do both at the same time it's called being a wounded healer if you wait until you're completely healed to help other people guess what you're gonna wait a long time because you're not gonna be fully healed of everything in your life until you get to heaven

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 808,972

Rating: 4.8145843 out of 5

Keywords: Brokenhearted, How To Heal A Broken Heart, Blessings, Beautitudes, Saddleback Church, Saddleback, Pastor Rick Warren, Rick Warren, The Keys To A Blessed Life, God (Deity), Hearts, Broken Heart, Grief, Pain, Healing

Id: 3sbByocM8Xo

Length: 45min 52sec (2752 seconds)

Published: Mon May 19 2014