How to get through what you are going through 6 - Sanctification: Finding Treasure in Darkness

[Applause] now if you'll take out your message notes inside your program this is the last week that we're doing in this series getting through whatever you're going through and I want us to look at how to never waste your pain now we know that God has five purposes for your life we've talked about this for years and years and years these five purposes are repeated over and over in scripture they are reinforced they re uh re uh emphasized they repeated over and over God has five purposes for your life number one we know that God wants you to know and love him you were planned for his pleasure and that's called worship when you know and love God we know that God wants you to learn to love other people that's the second purpose of life you are put on this planet to learn to love to learn to love God to learn to love others one is called worship one's called Fellowship then the Bible says that we are put on this planet to to grow up spiritually to be like Christ God's goal is that you become like Jesus not God but become Godly in character you were created to become like Christ and then the fourth purpose we know that you were put on this planet to practice serving this is preparation for eternity you're going to serve God in heaven God wants you to practice now and the way you practice now is by you serve God by serving other people you can't serve God directly here because you can't even see him the only way you can serve God on Earth is by serving other people and the Bible calls that your ministry and that's the fourth purpose of Life Worship Fellowship discipleship Ministry the fifth purpose of your life is you were made for a mission and God has a life message that he wants to communicate through you and nobody else can share your life message and God wants to use you to say something to this world now we all know those those five purposes that God has for our lives but what most people don't know is that God uses pain to fulfill those purposes in your life he uses pain but you have to you have to cooperate with God for that to happen in your life and sadly most people don't do this most people waste their suffering most people waste their pain most people don't profit from their problems they don't Harvest their hurts they don't advance from their adversity most people they don't they don't learn from their losses they don't improve from their injuries most people never gain from their pain so tonight what I want us to do in this weekend is to look at how to gain from your pain how God wants to use whatever pain you're going through emotional physical Financial relational spiritual in any area of Life how God wants to use the pain in your life to move you toward his purposes for your life and he doesn't want you to waste it this is what Paul's talking about in The Book of Galatians in chapter 3:4 he says this have you gone through all of this for nothing is it really all for nothing you know as I look at that verse I just want to ask you to answer this in your mind and I'm not asking you to publicly answer it have you grown from your pain or have you wasted your pain are you further down the road to where God wants you to be or have you just had pain in your life and it never made any difference well maybe say I don't know how to learn I don't know how to grow I don't know how to develop from my pain well it's not too late to learn so let's look at what God wants to do in your life as we wrap up this series pain can be used for all five of God's purposes in your life you might write these down number one the first thing I know is this I can use my pain to draw closer to God I can use my pain to draw closer to God now when anything bad happens in your life you have a choice you got a choice you can either run to God or you can run away from God now we by nature instinctively turned to God in pain whenever there is a massive tragedy a bomb explodes there's a uh you know a fire a flood uh a terrorist attack people go oh God the first people they person they cry out to is the God because by Instinct we know that we should turn to God but some people turn away from God in this you know when Matthew died now several months back uh it forced me to go deeper with God than I've ever had to go in my entire life I've always spent time with God every day I've had a quiet time for most of my life where I sit down and I spend time talking to God reading his word listening to him and talking to him in prayer but I want you to know in the last several months I'm a changed person because I wasn't spending a quiet time with God every day I was spending hours hours and hours with God every day just listening thinking meditating praying reading the word reading uh good scriptures reading good books and things like that because I wanted my pain to draw me closer to God not further away from him now how do you do that how do you draw close to God in your pain well you tell them how you feel you cry out to God you argue with God you trust God you do all of the steps we've talked about in the last seven weeks in shock you express your shock to God in sorrow you cry out in your sorrow to God in struggle you argue with God and in surrender you let go and you trust God you take all of these steps you can worship at every stage of the development this is what our family has been doing now for several months we're doing what Paul did in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 look at that verse Paul says this we were crushed and overwhelmed and we saw how powerless we were to help ourselves but that was good for then we put everything into the hands of God who could alone save us and he did help us Circle the phrase but that was good Paul says wait a minute we were crushed we were overwhelmed we were in over our heads we were ready to give up we were discouraged we were defeated we were dying but he says that was good why because it drew us closer to God rather than away from God one of the things that my family did in the last several months is we did a we did a surrender Retreat together we went over to Rancho Capistrano and had uh Jamon Goen who's on staff as the spiritual director at our retreat center and had him lead us in a retreat of surrender why because we wanted to be drawn closer to God last night I was speaking to the uh Women of Faith up at U the conference at at the Honda Center well I was up there I heard a story about a guy who who came to Christ on 9911 the actual day 911 and I and I just got how many people do you know have come to Christ out of pain maybe you did maybe you did maybe there was a divorce a death a disaster a distraction a difficulty a disappointment God says I one of the things I can use this for in your life is I will draw you closer to me if you let it many of you could say pain turned me to Christ in 2 Corinthians 7:9 Paul says this I'm glad about the pain that these people went through not because it hurt you but because the pain turned you to God that's the first purpose I can let pain draw me closer to God second purpose I can use my pain to draw closer to others not just to God but to other people and this is the purpose of fellowship and if you allow it pain will deepen your love your love for other people it will mature Your Love suffering sensitizes you suffering deepens you suffering turns you it transforms I've seen the most stubborn self-centered selfish hard-bitten men turn into real lovers after a major tragedy in their life God says I can use pain to draw you not only closer to me but to draw you closer to other people now you know the odds aren't good for couples who lose a child in fact about nearly one-third of all marriages where a child dies like in the case in my family in our family nearly one-third of all those marriages ends in divorce once a child this lost but I'd have to say Kay and I are closer today than we were for five months ago closer today uh I I I'll just be honest with you I am more in love with my wife than I have ever been in my life and uh I just well I won't go any further because I don't want to embarrass her but um I asked Kay today as I Was preparing this message I said why do you you think we're closer today than ever before she says because you're so nice to me [Laughter] now well that might be part of it but I think there were a couple reasons and we actually would agree on this is that after Matthew died we knew the statistics that a crisis a death particularly death of a child often splits up a family and we said we're not going to let that happen and we intentionally worked at strengthening our marriage over the last months intentionally worked at cultivating a deeping in it we've been married now 38 years but we said we're going to make this the best year of our marriage and I think another thing we did is we gave each other a lot of Grace and one of the things was we did not judge each other's feelings because when you're going through pain your feelings go like this there you go go up and down and they go all over sideways and you think strange thoughts and weird thoughts and have all kinds of emotions and we just decided no emotion is a bad emotion and and Kay would say I'm going to tell this to you and she would tell and I would sit there and non-judgmentally goes well that makes sense that there is no wrong feeling feelings are not right or wrong feelings are just feelings how many arguments have you had in your marriage because you tried to convince your spouse their feeling was reasonable don't do the elbows right now so many of our arguments in marriage end up because we're trying to talk each other out of feelings don't don't do it feelings are just feelings they're neither right nor wrong they're just feelings and so by showing Grace to each other that that brought us closer together do you remember a few weeks ago I talked about that there are four levels of of Fellowship and and they go deeper and deeper and we talked about how in your small group the the shallowest level of Fellowship is the fellowship of sharing that's where how's your day how are you doing what's going on in your life how's everything going that's the fellowship of sharing and that's okay it's just not very deep to go a little bit deeper in Fellowship you go to The Fellowship of studying where you study the word of God together to go a little bit deeper than that you go to the fellowship of uh of serving and if you've ever had your small group go on a pieace trip together you know how much that binds you together it's when you're serving together you go deeper than studying or sharing but the deepest level of all is the fellowship of suffering The Fellowship of suffering and the only way you get to the fellowship of suffering is by being willing to be vulnerable take the risk of being vulnerable and share what you're you're feeling Galatians 62 there on your outline says this by helping each other with your troubles you truly obey the law of Christ what is the law of Christ Christ love your neighbors yourself and he says when you help each other in your pain when you help each other in your suffering when you help each other in your in your troubles when you enter into the fellowship of suffering he says then you're obeying the greatest commandment love your neighbor as yourself and I just want to say to you that pain if you will allow it will teach you how to really love you see pain isn't I mean love is far more than chocolate and roses and Valentine pain changes bed pans you might tweet that pain changes bed pants that's real love that's real pain works I mean uh Real Love Changes bed pants Real Love Changes real love works if you know the meaning of that God bless you number three the third purpose of pain I can use it to draw closer to God I can use it to draw closer to others God says I can use pain to become more like Jesus I can use pain to become more like Jesus in other words pain is always an opportunity to grow in character to grow in the fruit of the spirit love joy peace patience gentleness goodness faithfulness meekness self-control these nine qualities how do you learn them you learn them in tough times you learn love in unlovely situations you learn joy in grief situations you learn peace in chaos you learn patience having to wait you learn these things in the exact opposite situations I can choose to let pain make me more like Jesus but again it's a choice some people pain makes them bitter and some people let pain make them better some people let pain be a stepping stone to progress and other let others let pain be a stumbling block to failure it's Choice Proverbs 20:30 look up here on the screen says this sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways anybody want to give a testimony on that verse yeah sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways now the the fact is and I said this a couple weeks ago God's number one purpose in your life is to make you like Jesus now if God's going to make you like Jesus loving like Jesus thinking like Jesus being kind like Jesus being truthful like Jesus having the character the Integrity the generosity the humility of Jesus if God's going to make you like Jesus he's going to take you through the things that Jesus went through hm were there times when Jesus was lonely yes were there times that you will be lonely yes were there times when Jesus was misunderstood yes were there will there be times when you were misunderstood yes were there times when Jesus was criticized maligned and judged yes same for you where there times when Jesus was so tired and fatigued he felt like he couldn't go on another day yes were there times when Jesus was tempted yes what makes you think God's going to spare you he didn't spare his own son so why would he spare you he did not spare Jesus from Pain and if God is going to make me like Christ then he's going to take me through the same kind of things that Jesus went through now look at up here on the screen the Bible says this Hebrews 58 even though Jesus was God's son he learned obedience from the things he suffered the Bible says Jesus learned obedience from suffering Jesus learned to do the right thing in spite of the fact that it wasn't the easy thing to do how are you going to learn to do the right thing in spite of the fact it's not the easy thing to do same way through suffering here's another verse look at this verse Ephesians uh Hebrews 5:9 on your on the screen suffering made Jesus perfect and now he can save forever all who obey him you say suffering made Jesus perfect I thought he was perfect well the word perfect here literally means complete and it's saying it completed Jesus by going through suffering there are some things the only way you learn them is through pain you agree with that some things you only only learn through pain now Paul complements the the way the Corinthians the Believers in the city of Corinth and Greece had handled the pain in their lives look at this verse there on your outline 2 Corinthians 7:14 Now isn't it wonderful Paul says all the ways in which this distress they had been going through a tough time all the ways in which this distress has goed you closer to God you're more alive you're more concerned you're more sensitive you're more reverent you're more human you're more passionate you're more responsible looked at from any angle you've come out of this with purity of heart now notice Paul's talking to a group of people who've just gone through the ringer their life had just been hell on Earth they had gone through amazing persecution amazing suffering amazing pain and he says there are seven things that have come out of this you're more alive you're more concerned you're more sensitive more relevant more human more passionate more responsible he lists these seven quality wouldn't you like to have those in your life wouldn't you like to be more alive wouldn't you like to be more compassionate more passionate more sensitive more responsible then you need to ask God to use the pain in your life for good and choose to cooperate with him see the fact is pain transforms us it never leaves us where where we started it will either be better or bitter as I said it won't leave you where it picked you up it will take you to another place now I want you to listen very close closely what I'm about to say I want you to win in life I want you to succeed in life I want your life to have meaning and significance I want your life to be all that God wants it to be the secret of every winner whether it's winning in business winning in sports winning at love winning in relationships winning financially spiritually or any other way The Secret of every single winner is one word it is the word resilience resilience it is the ability to bounce back why because everybody goes through tough times everybody has failures everybody has flops nobody goes through life with unbroken success nobody goes through life with no problems no nobody goes through life with it just a breeze and everything's handed to them there are problems pains pressures difficulties and everybody's life and the difference between winners and losers is that Winners get back up it's the only difference the only difference between a winner and a loser is resiliency losers stay down I'll never let another man hurt me dumb idea because you shut yourself off to hurt you've just shut yourself off to a love and you will live a Loveless life the rest of your life I will never let another employer hurt me I will never let another whatever hurt me you build a wall and you fill the moat and you pull up the drawbridge and you build a a prison a self-imposed prison that your heart stays in and you become a little claw of a person that's what a loser does winners have resilience winners keep on keeping on winners keep going Winners Get Knocked Down but they get back up winners have the same problems losers do they just have resilience and I think more than any other quality I want you to develop resilience in your life because life is tough everybody agree with that it's tough and you can let it beat you down and you can get down and then stay down the rest of your life you might as well die God May well may as well take you on home right now because you're not going to live you're just going to exist but if you have resilience you learn from your losses you profit from your pain you gain from the pain you advance from your adversity all of these things happen when you have resilience now how do I get resilience well you need to do what Paul did I want to read you three passages they aren't on your outline they're going to be on the screen three passages of Paul that show that he was probably the most resilient person who ever lived now the first one uh is 2 Corinthians 11: 23- 28 let me read it to you it says this this is Paul's personal testimony I've been put in jail more often been whipped times without number and faced death again and again five different times I was whipped with 39 lashes now think about that five times 39 that's how many scars he had on his back three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times I was Shipwrecked once I spent a whole night in the day of drift at Sea I faced dangers from flooded Rivers dangers from robbers dangers from Angry crowds mobs I faced dangers in the city and in deserts and even on stormy seas I face dangers from people who claim to be Christians but aren't I've lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights this is the guy who wrote most of the Bible you read the New Testament weariness and pain and sleepless nights I've often been hungry and thirsty I've often Gone without food I've often shivered with cold without enough clothing to keep me warm said often and besides all this I've had the daily burdens of all the churches I've started and you think you had a bad day all right now if anybody has a right to complain it's Paul that list of that laundry list of the terrible things that have happened in his life while he's trying to serve God by the way now here's another verse this is on not on your outline second Corinthians 4:8-10 says this we are pressed on every Side by troubles but we are not crushed and broken we are perplexed but we don't give up and quit we are hunted down but God never abandons us and we get knocked down but we get up again and keep going I'm knocked down but I'm not knocked out he's saying through suffering these bodies of ours are con constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies now that's what I call a resilient person and he says no matter what happens I just I'm the Energizer Bunny I keep on ticking what was the secret of Paul's resistance his resilience his determination his ability to bounce back no matter how bad things happen in his life the answer is right here it's for perspective it's the way he looked at things he he looked at life not from a worldly view but from a Godly view not from a contemporary view but from an eternal perspective he looked at his life in light of Eternity realizing that this life is just preparation for the next and no matter how hard the problem is it's just temporary but the rewards in eternity are going to go on forever you see you can handle Unbelievable pain if you see a purpose in it now if you don't see a purpose in it you're not going to be resilient but if you see a purpose in it and you see God's hand God is using this to draw me closer to him God is using this to teach me to love other people God is using this to make me more like Christ then you get resilience 2 Corinthians 4:16 18 this is on your outline for this reason he says in other words because I have this eternal perspective for this reason we never become discouraged he says even though our physical being is gradually decaying yet our spiritual being is being renewed day after day and these temporary troubles that we suffer that laundry list I just read these temporary troubles we will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory much greater than the trouble for we fix our attention not on things that are seen But on things that are unseen what can be seen lasts only for a short time but what cannot be seen lasts forever he says I don't look at my problems I don't look at my pain I don't look at my difficulty I look beyond that to the reward that's going going to be in heaven Jesus did the same thing the Bible says Jesus endured the cross because he was looking forward to his reward the Bible says in in in Hebrews 11 Moses endured suffering because he he had he had his eyes on the prize on the reward in heaven I don't know what's discouraging you this this day it may be a physical problem it may may be a financial problem it may be a relational problem there are some things that are prolonged pain in your life and it just seems like they're not going away I call it the how long the how long test Lord how long how long is this going to go on and it doesn't you see no end in sight for this problem you see no end in sight for this pain you don't see any Solution on the high on the on the horizon you're in the tunnel and you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and you are discouraged and you feel like giving up God says if I choose then I can choose to let pain draw me closer to God and I have and I want you to do it too and God says I can choose to let pain Draw Me Closer to other people I can let it deepen my love get my eyes off myself and onto others and I have and I hope you will too God says if I want to I can choose to become more like Jesus Christ and grow in character genesus learned obedience through suffering Jesus was made perfect through suffering number four I can use my pain to help others this is the purpose of service this is called Redemptive suffering it's suffering for the benefit others it is the highest and best use of your pain now follow me on this if you're going to be in pain cuz we live in a broken world and everybody has pain we all have pain nobody lives a pain-free life if you're going to have pain and you know you're going to have it why not at least get some credit for it and you don't get credit for your pain by mumbling moaning complaining you don't get pain for for pulling yourself into a self-centered person and and ignoring the needs of other people you don't get credit for your pain by feeling sorry for yourself and having a pity party you get credit for your pain by using it to help other people who are in the same kind of pain God says that is the highest and best use and you will be richly rewarded for it and rather than focusing on my hurt my feeling how I feel bad I refocus it and I refocus on the pain of others right after Matthew died I just decided that I was going to use social media to encourage other people in pain and I began tweeting and Facebooking and instagramming and all the other ones LinkedIn and stuff like that by the way if you're not following me on Twitter you're going to hell just threw that in there why because I wanted to redeem my pain I didn't want to waste my pain I wanted to use it I wanted to use it to help other people we began this series with second Corinthians chapter 1 and I'm going to end it with it too it's there on your outline 2 Corinthians 1: 4-6 God Comforts us in our troubles so that we can Comfort others bam There It Is God Comforts us in our troubles so we can Comfort others then when others are troubled we're able to give them the same comfort that God has given us and you can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ so when we're weighed down with troubles it's for your benefit it's for your salvation for when God Comforts us it's so that we in turn can be an encouragement to you then you can patiently endure the same things that we suffer now this is Common Sense 101 who can better help a struggling veteran than somebody who's been a veteran who can better help parents of a special needs child than somebody who's been a parent of a special needs child who can better help somebody struggling with a chronic illness than somebody who is struggling with a chronic illness they understand who could better help someone who's been molested or raped than someone who's been molested or raped don't waste your hurt don't hide your hurt let God heal it and let God recycle it and let God use it and let God utilize it and let God bless other people don't waste any pain in your life I can use it to help others finally number five I can use my pain to witness to the world I can use my pain to witness to the world now when you start talking about witnessing or evangelism everybody all gets up tight the one thing about Believers and non-believers that they have in common is they both are nervous about evangelism evangelism is comes from the Greek word Evangel which means good news all it is is sharing good news and the highest form of witnessing is witnessing in your pain I can use my pain to witness to the world you see God knows the exact opposite is true of what we think is true we think that the world is impressed by our prosperity and how we handle Prosperity so we want to show off our prosperity that's it doesn't impress the world the world is impressed with how we handle adversity not Prosperity adversity we think that our successes give us credibility When God says no your suffering gives you credibility we think that Fame earns respect When God says no what actually earns respect is faithfulness in tough times you see I could stand up here right now and I could tell you my banner list of achievements in my lifetime and I got this award and this award and this award this award this award and this award blah blah blah blah wah wah wah W and you'd be going well goodie for you ain't that grand I'm not you it would not draw us closer together it would not make you more like Christ it wouldn't serve you and you would not even be impressed but when I stand up here and I tell you about the hell that I've gone through after my son took his life after struggling with mental illness for 27 years that touches you and you're listening and it's a witness what I'm saying is your weaknesses will actually gain a hearing more than your strengths that's the exact opposite what everything in the world and culture taught you you think I have to be successful to be heard as a Christian I have to be uh Rich to be heard as a Christian I have to be famous to be heard as a Christian no you have to be authentic in pain and when you're authentic in pain you will have more people listening to you than you could possibly imagine because when I started sharing about my pain they came out of the woodwork and you would not believe how many lives I've been able to just talk with that I would have never had any connection to in any other way because pain humanizes pain sympathizes pain causes you to have a a credibility with people so I use my pain to witness to the world now again I keep going back to Paul because he was the pro at this he had the most pain and God used him to bless the World by writing half of the New Testament and Paul says this in Philippians 1:12 I want you know dear brothers and sisters that everything that has happened to me now let's what is the everything that's happened to me all those shipwrecks the beatings the you know the going without food the hunger all all of the the hit with rods put in prison all that stuff that I read you he says I want you to know dear brothers and sisters that everything that everything that has happened to me has helped to spread the good news that's pretty amazing everything that's happened happen and I would say that's true in my life everything that has happened to me has helped spread the good news Paul says I use my pain as a model for my message God wants you to use your pain as a model for your message as a platform for your life message God says the thing that you regret the most you hate the most you despise the most the thing that you wish had never happen in your life those most things he says I want to use that in your life to touch other people in pain but you got to be honest to yourself honest to God and then honest with others and you've got to be vulnerable Paul says I use my pain as a model for my message 2 Corinthians 6:4 in everything we do Paul says we try to show that we're true Servants of God he says I'm using my my message my model of the message through the pain in everything we do we try to show that we're true Servants of God how we patiently endure suffering and hardship and trouble of every kind I said this this week on Twitter your deepest life message will come out of your deepest pain and this is real witnessing it's Christlike witnessing it's what Jesus did for you what is the greatest witness of God's love the greatest witness of God's love is not what Jesus said it's not what Jesus did the greatest witness of God's love is not The Sermon on the Mount it's not the sermons he preached the greatest witness of God's love is not the Miracles that Jesus did the greatest witness of God's love is the suffering of Jesus this is how much I love you I love you so much it hurts so the bottom line is this you're going to have pain in your life I wish I could stop it I can't you're going to have pain in your life now you can either use it for good or you can waste it please don't waste it what we're talking about here is Purpose Driven pain pain that causes me to worship to the fellowship to disciple to minister to evangelize pain that causes me to know Christ to love Christ to grow in Christ to share Christ to serve Christ pain that has a purpose you're going to have pain you may as well use it for good now notice on your outline I left a a line there says helping others I want to give you a little homework first here's what I want you to do in that space there I want you to write down you don't have to do it right now the four most painful experiences in your life okay I want you to when you go home sit down take a minute write down the four most painful experiences in your life then go back over this list and look at how God could use that in instance in each of these five areas and then the second thing I want you to write down is the names of people who are going through those similar things right now and you just discovered your ministry and you just discovered your life message and you just discovered purpos driven pain in recovery we call this the 12 step that you don't get well till you're helping somebody else when when when when when are you recovered from anything you're not recovered until you're helping somebody else and if you never help any somebody else you will never recover from your pain it's the only way you get out of it God has wired it that in when I give it away it is when job prayed for his friends that God healed job so do this on a personal level and then do it on a family level if you have a family and you might sit and say what's what's been the pain in our family every family has family hurts and talk about them as a family and say how could we help other families in the same situation that we're in and then we ought to look at it as a church you know the name Saddleback s a d d l e b a c k each one of those letters represents a value and the first value at Saddleback is the s in saddleback and it stands for this Saddleback is a second chance Grace Place it's a place where people can start over it's a place where people who've really messed up can begin again it's a place where people in pain can find New Hope let's bow our heads father we've gone through this series and we've treaded some deep Waters we've looked at shock and sorrow and struggle and surrender and sanctification and now service we see how that you don't want to just waste the pain that happens in our lives you want us to use it would you pray this prayer in your heart say dear Jesus Christ use the pain in my life to draw me closer to you say Jesus Christ use the pain in my life to teach me how to really love and draw closer to others say Jesus Christ use the pain in my life to make me more like you and Jesus use the pain in my life life to serve others to serve God by serving others and Jesus Christ use the pain in my life as a witness to the world that you can be counted on that you are a good God that you give us strength even in the most difficult of times if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ say Jesus Christ come into my life right now and begin the healing process I want to follow you I want to learn to love you and trust you you and I invite you into my life in Jesus name amen

Channel: Saddleback Church Hong Kong

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Id: mIhFgpFQr3U

Length: 43min 33sec (2613 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2015