I'm Not Okay | Use Your Pain, Be A Blessing | Pastor Marty Ocaya

[Music] oh praise the [Music] name [Music] foreign [Music] where is [Music] name [Music] we will see your grace [Music] and i will rise [Music] on jesus [Music] ah [Music] oh [Music] his name forever [Music] as lord we give you the praise for you alone to serve all the glory to our heavenly father the god of comfort we look to you lord and we pray we pray that you open our eyes to the truth in spite of our feelings and emotions in spite of what we see in our circumstances may we look to you alone in jesus name we pray amen and amen hello hello everyone welcome welcome to our online youth service it's been a while since the last time i spoke here i think uh uh two weeks ago since the last time i spoke here but i'm so glad to be back and i'm so glad that you are with us today as we end our series i'm not okay but my prayer is that you are okay uh and you are well you're not sick my prayer is god is working mightily in your life and i really believe god is moving mightily in and through your life your family and even in this world even though some sophomore things in this world seems getting darker even more i just want to encourage you you know god is really moving and uh if this is your first time or you are our guest uh and you're joining us in our online youth service for the first time we would like to welcome you we are going through this series i'm not okay because the truth is a lot of people are not okay and basically we want to help people navigate through the pains of life but before i continue and go to the message proper i just want to give a shout out to the people joining us princess emerald hello princess emil emerald see angelica too hello angelica too uh si si no banandito si margeriti big see kate [Music] and the other workers there uh and also our leaders in elevate baguio atienza you're also joining us today but anyway also our missionaries joining us and even those who are from other countries i saw this a youtube channel nathan that there are those watching from hong kong i think from uh middle east and from other countries uh you're also welcome and we're really glad that you are with us now before again i just want to give an announcement before we continue with our message tomorrow okay uh if you don't know elevate our youth ministry or this youth movement is part of a church called ccf or christ commission fellowship tomorrow we will be celebrating our 36th anniversary so i would like to invite all of you invite your parents invite your friends invite your loved ones tomorrow puyan 9 a.m uh we'll start there is going to be a worship service online worship service as well you can uh go to our facebook page christ commission fellowship or as a youtube channel and ccf as well and please do join us as we celebrate god's faithfulness in this church in our movement so we really hope to see you there we really hope you can join us and bring as many as you can to join you have a watch party to join you as we celebrate god's faithfulness so again tomorrow puyan 9 a.m on first service and then of course we have 12 noon we have 3 p.m we have 6 p.m but i hope that you can join us okay so as we close our series i'm not okay as we close this i don't know where you are right now in terms of your relationship with god how you are dealing with this pandemic with the with the things that are going on and dami para sunun sununu bad news i don't know also if you're looking at your facebook page uh facebook uh facebook uh sometimes when you look at that death tragedy just recently or just today see black panther wakanda forever okay passed away it was just a sad news so if you look at all of those things all the more parang okay right but all the more i don't feel like everything is i i don't feel like things are improving i don't feel like god is really healing the land because there's more people dying there's more people suffering there's more sickness out there and it's just just too much for some people it's just too much to handle so how do i really navigate through all of these things so uh basically in this series we tried to answer different questions uh we tried to answer the question why does god allow emotional pain we started off with that one that was the first week and then second week we talked about why does god allow poverty why does god allow people having not much right compared to others and then last week we talked about why does god allow sickness and death i mean these things are real these things are inevitable and a lot of people they do have those questions and they it seems they couldn't find the answer sometimes and they wallow in their sadness in the pain and that's a natural response for a lot of people but as we were as we went through the series we learned a number of things first of all in our first week we learned that in every pain god is working that when you are experiencing emotional pain when you're experiencing maybe sickness in your life in the family or there's financial difficulties i know a lot of people lost their job 48 in the in our country right now they don't have a job and that's just staggering that's just a difficult truth to handle and then sometimes we ask how is god working in all of these things but we have learned in our first week that in every pain god is indeed working in your life and in my life right and we also learned when it comes to provision when it comes to uh when it comes to poverty or financial difficulties that god will never fail to provide for our needs in detail again again say lord in fact our learn is to be content because a lot of times the reason why we have financial difficulties is because we have so much wants that we cannot afford and we need to learn contentment the role is not to compare the role is to trust god that he will indeed provide and if you look at your life up until when the time the time you're born until today i know that god has never failed to provide for you that's why you're still alive that's why i'm still alive because god will never fail to provide our role is to trust him our role is to depend on him our role is to be content that's what he's teaching us we also learned last week that sickness and death are inevitable we cannot avoid that every person in this world that's what they're gonna experience eventually right and everybody's gonna get sick whether it's a common cold i hope it's not covid19 but some or a lot of people are getting sick with that some are cancer some heart disease some with other ailment but the truth is eternity with the lord is possible yes there's sickness and death but last week it was highlighted by our brother jc that there is eternity in the lord that this all of these things and we you've been hearing that in this in our online youth service you've been hearing that everything in this world is temporary and i want you to just grasp that in your head accept that bully in your heart that everything in this world is temporary that's why we place our hope in god because in god in the lord there is eternity eternity with the lord is possible so these are good things right these are the things that we have learned but here's the thing as we go on okay as we go along with this emotional pain poverty sickness and death we experience that we i mean we experience sickness we hear people dying we experience emotional pain we are financially uh suffering or being challenged maybe your family yes it's good to have these perspectives and i hope you're learning different perspectives about this like god is really working that you need to be content that you need to have eternity in your mind those are good perspectives but as we close this series i want to teach you i want to teach you how you should act i want to teach you what you need to do as you go through this pain whether it's an emotional pain whether you lost a loved one whether you're experienced experiencing financial difficulties i want to teach you your role your part that you need to play because the thing is sometimes or a lot of times people don't know how they should act when there's pain they don't know what they should do with their pain they fail to realize that god has a role for you when you're going through the pain and that's what we are going to learn today as we close the series but before that let's look at some perspectives on pain that we need to realize okay some perspectives on pain that we need to realize number one pain is inevitable in other words whether you like it or not can you just type it there sabihimosa friends sorry whether it's about sickness whether it's an emotional pain whether it's a financial pain you're gonna experience pain right another one is pain should not control me because the thing is some people they allow their pain to control them to the point to the point that they couldn't move they couldn't do something right to the point that they are just stuck in other words another thing about pain that we shouldn't do is pain should not paralyze me because that's what happened to a lot of some people maybe not a lot of people but there are people who are experiencing this that because of maybe emotional pain because of a death of a loved one and those are valid you're experiencing emotional hurt you're experiencing pain because you lost a loved one but it should not control you the sadness should not control you the pain should not paralyze you it's not the end of the world some people don't want to study anymore just because of an emotional pain some people they don't want to live anymore just because there is something that they don't like that happened in their life no that's not the role of pain in your life in my life in fact this is another perspective that we should learn pain can be a source of growth we need to see and understand that when god allows pain in your life he wants it to grow you and me he wants you to grow in your character he wants you to grow as a person he wants you to endure and to persevere as you go on through life because that's one of the reasons why god allows pain which it can be a source of growth and another one is this it can be a blessing and this is where i want to focus in today's message you can be a blessing with your pain in your life as you go through it you can be a blessing to others i like this statement let's read this together god can use your pain to be a source of healing to someone whether you agree with this right now or not i am here to tell you that god can use your pain cayenne gamete in the lord to be a source of healing to someone that's why our message for today as we close this series is very simple let's read this together use your pain be a blessing can you tell your seat mates it means your friends can you tell your friends okay can you type it there can you type it there's a screen use your pain be a blessing tag all of your friends use your pain be a blessing the reason why i want to end with this with this topic you see i don't want you to waste your pain and some people can say they're wasting their penis it can really be a blessing to make an impact in the lives of other people that's why use your pain and be a blessing so how do we do this because the question with this statement is this okay my question when i was preparing for this why would i do that i'm in pain right why would i do that i'm the one in pain i'm the one suffering why would i be a blessing to other people you see the normal response we have when it when we are in pain the normal response we have is inward we think about ourselves i want to think about myself i want to bring comfort to myself selfish lung because of the pain that's the natural response but on the contrary what god wants us to do is let him give us the comfort and be the source of comfort also to other people be outward external outlook not just internal not become selfish a lot of people because of pain they are more selfish in fact when there's a crisis more and more people tend to become selfish but god wants us to be selfless that's why we use our pain and be a blessing my second question is how do i do this i'm in pain it's hard it's so easy to say okay i'm going to be a blessing but when you're going through pain param how would i do this in fact you know of some people that they were sore a sore they were a source of blessing to others even though they were in pain for example recently one of our pastor's wives um in in ecf passed away before because of cancer and during the time that she was experiencing stage four cancer she counseled a lot of women she ministered to to them during her last few months here on earth and the people were shocked in fact some of them were asking her how come you're joyful how come you're doing this and she said to them well i know i'm going to the lord in fact i'm excited to see jesus and this pain is temporary and i know god wants me to share all of these lessons to you before god takes me home look at that perspective she is using her pain or she used her pain so she can be a blessing to others now you might be asking where can we find this in the scripture good thing the apostle paul experienced a lot of pain and she wrote he wrote about this so that to help us realize that we can be a blessing to others so let's look at second corinthians chapter one let's look at that one first why paul wrote this i'm gonna explain that later on so second corinthians chapter one let's look at verse three look at what paul said praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of compassion i like that statement and the god of all comfort i highlight nothing paul said that praise be to the god and father god our father the father of compassion of care the one who cares for us that's the greek word of that word compassion who genuinely cares for us who genuinely wants to help us who genuinely seeks the best for us that's what it means the father of compassion who understands what you are going through so paul is saying i've experienced this guys i know that our heavenly father is the father of all compassion of compassion and he's not just a father of compassion he's the god of all comfort that we will experience comfort because of our lord now i like that word comfort because let me check that out comfort is intimate calling to one's aid that's the greek word there intimate calling to one's aid in other words you are calling to god and he is intimate with you and he is going to aid you you shall bring desperate god that's the word comfort human tongue desperate and here's god i'm here to help you i'm here to aid you i know you're in pain i know you're suffering i'm here for you and i like the word all because that's a qualifier because a lot of us we go to other things other people to receive comfort paul is saying that god is the source of all comfort in other words that word all is it means complete it means whole it means it's every kind of comfort that we need god can provide because some people they go to other things for example usual sources of comfort kunarime problem what do you usually do if you want to receive comfort if you're in pain i think kanina i may answer the name hashtag pain management some of them they watch tv some of them they eat spicy noodles so but what do you do when you're in pain usually these are some of the sources of our comfort music we listen to music right whether it's a love song whether it's uh i don't know pop the music rock music some people are like that that even though it's rock music heavy metal music they feel comforted so some people they use music for some people yeah netflix right so you use netflix you binge watch you watch a lot of shows you finish the entire series right and some people do that it helps i'm not saying these things are wrong what i'm saying is they go to these things i sometimes go to the i listen to music to help me calm my heart i'm not saying it's wrong what i'm saying is we go to these things sometimes still get comfort for some people yeah and cody among us among others whatever that is the games that you play it gives you comfort right again i'm not saying it's wrong of course if you're addicted that's what's wrong but what i'm saying is we go to these things to receive comfort for some people yeah and food i know of some people now when they're stressed soprano dummy problems people in ice cream okay i'm coming i screamed right uh i know of some people also heartbreak or my emotional pain because of a guy or a girl be bilingual dessert chocolate or cookies and cream or whatever favorite flavor nyan and ice cream when you're stressed when you're experiencing problems so for some people for some people they want they travel of course but for some people they they do travel they go out of the country they visit another city in the philippines they go to the beach they go to the mountain just to unwind just to refresh themselves just to you know have as a time of peaceful a time of peace to be at peace sometimes that's what they're doing again i'm not saying it's wrong but what i'm saying is usually we go to this for some people family and friends they go out with their family they talk to their parents they talk to their sibling young best friend or they talk to their friends or they text their friends we hang out devastated own we just broke off i'm so so hurt or maybe some guy or maybe some girl so we usually go out with our friends for some people surprisingly pets right they need you have some of you you have pets and they you use these pets to give you comfort in fact in the u.s i don't know if in the philippines they have this they have what you call nicotopeta okay they have what you call grief therapy dog grief therapy dog they train these dogs to comfort those people those who are sick sick terminally sick those who are um anything any kind of pain depressed so usually these dogs you can find them in the hospitals some uh funeral parlors you can find these dogs there and they you can hire them you pay for it and then they can they can be with you for a certain time as you go along with your grieving process so some people they go to these to these things to these dogs they go to uh they get animals to give them comfort again i'm not saying it's wrong for some people it's justice gustin and justice why they got hurt or somebody committed a crime against them and they want justice now all of these things can be a temporarily temporary comfort to us but it's not a complete kind of comfort it's not the comfort that paul is saying the god of all comfort these things these things are good but it doesn't complete the process of being comforted it's not a perfect picture of complete comfort they can temporarily comfort us for example you listen to music after judgments another example manuka netflix but have you ever experienced watching a series that's after you've watched the series you can see it is some of you have experienced that you cried and all the more you're lonely because the tap was staying serious you have that attachment i know of a girl i mean i heard of the story i don't know this girl but i heard of a story of this girl nah she because of the sirisa because of the series and i think because she was also depressed she really believed with all of her heart now girlfriend shani li minho okay i don't know any reason the king the monarch i don't know but anyway so maybe she was watching that and as a result of that because she was depressed i don't know what happened to her mind but instead of helping her she got so obsessed with lee min ho that she thought shame boyfriend ashamed girlfriend right so instead of being a comfort la getting confused okay for games it can be a temporary comfort but again it doesn't solve your problem for food yes it can be a comfort pero it's not going to help you travel can be a temporary one family and friends one of the best ways to give you comfort but again still temporary because what if they disappoint you pets yes but their life is not that long justice yes but if you want comfort based on justice even though justice is served it's still not enough that's why paul said god is the god of all comfort we go to him now knowing what he said about who god is knowing that god is the father of compassion god of all comfort that he will bring us comfort in times of trouble look at what paul said in verse 4 who comforts us in all our troubles look at this so that there's the purpose what's the purpose of god's comfort to me so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from god now i understand that i need to use my pain to be a blessing what's our message again use your pain be a blessing again how do i do this why would i do this why is paul saying that this is god's purpose for me why would i do this i'm already in pain paul modeled this perfectly how do i know let's look at what he said in verse 5 for just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of christ what does that mean that i share in the sufferings of christ so also our comfort abounds through christ you know what i realized paul was pertaining to what jesus christ said in john 15 what did jesus say remember what i told you a servant is not greater than his master jesus is our master right we are the servants if they persecuted me jesus they will persecute you also if they obey my teaching they will obey yours also and he didn't just say this because in another chapter in chapter 16 look at what jesus christ said i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace can you know come out in peace okay jesus there's peace there's hope there's hope there's comfort because in this world you and i will have trouble there will be problems there will be trials but descartes i have overcome the world if christ suffered when he was here on earth expect that we will also suffer expect that there will be problems expect that there will be challenges expect that we will experience pain expect that there will be times that you will say or i will say i'm not okay and it's normal to say that it's okay to cry that out to god it's okay to say to god lord i'm really not okay because it's happy but then look at what he said just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of christ yes we will share in the sufferings of christ if he was he was he was persecuted we will also experience that if he experienced disappointment from people guess what you and i will be disappointed from people as well we will share that suffering but at the same time we will also share the abounding comfort because of our lord jesus christ young promised nepal now paul really experienced a lot of sufferings you know what i realized being a recipient of god's comfort will move me to become a channel of god's comfort to others if i personally have experienced the comfort of god young love nya young care i will naturally be moved by god to become a channel of his comfort to other people he will use my pain to be a blessing to others in other words i will move out of my comfort zone i will stop being selfish stop being inward-looking you see we're living in a world right now mindset is victim mentality i don't know if you've heard that term victim mentality i heard that from our an rcim speaker ravi zechariah's ministry uh sa ravi zacharias ministry so it's r z i am there's this speaker who spoke about that victim mentality in this world people uplifts or elevates those who are victimized you know that's a big problem because victim mentality is inward-looking i'm the one to serve don't get me wrong yes those people who are victimized they deserve justice they deserve to be cared for but if every people in this world every person in this world will just become a victim mindset person then everybody will be inward looking then everybody will just be selfish everybody will look at themselves instead of caring for others that's why paul wrote this because he wants us to show care to others stop being self-centered can you type that in the screen can you just tell your friends stop being self-centered we need to use our pain to be a blessing to other people and when we are recipients of god's comfort it's gonna move us to care for others look at this second corinthians look at the the sufferings that paul experienced that let's read this in 2nd corinthians 11 5 times i received from the jews the 40 lashes minus one he was last four 39 times whipped sabachnya almost died five times the experience i on three times i was beaten with rods look at the suffering imagine the question lord i'm not okay cinema gigging okay after muma last five times you receive this kind of blasting beaten by rods once pelted inappropriate stones three times i was shipwrecked in the middle of the sea i spent a night and a day in the open sea imagine he was stuck there don't know if he's going to survive don't know what's going to happen to him i have been constantly on the move i have been in danger from rivers i endanger from bandits even other people wanted to hurt him in danger from my even his own people wanted to hurt him fellow jews in danger from bandits fellow jews gentiles meaning to say non-jewish people in danger in the city in danger in the country in danger at sea and in danger from false believers you know if we're going to compare ourselves to him bacha young life go compared to him right because if i'm experiencing that definitely lord i'm not okay i'm not okay with all of these things and it didn't end there i have lay bored i have toiled i have often gone without sleep not because of gaming okay not because of netflix not because of k drama because of his work because he loves the lord because he's ministering to people i have known hunger and thirst not because the prayer and fasting shah sometimes yes he does that but because there's really no food but he was content remember philippians chapter 3 11 chapter four he was content have often gone without food i have been cold and naked maybe because he was shipwrecked there's no clothes there they had to throw the clothes we don't know when he experienced this but he experienced all of these things and besides everything else imagine this besides everything else i face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches you know if you look at that statement i face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches you have experienced all of these things paul you have suffered because you want to minister and then you still think about the church you still think about people why why would you do that why would you do this for them sometimes that's what we advise people think about yourself but not paul that's why he's saying when you receive the comfort from god so that you can be a source of comfort to other people as well look at the passage that we've been reading in second corinthians let's go back to chapter one okay chapter 11 he was describing he was describing what happened to him chapter one he was addressing the people simula addressing them of what happened to him look at verse six if we are distressed it is for your comfort and salvation you know why he said that because the reason why he's going to different places discipling people planting churches it's because this is god's calling in his life and if he's suffering because of these things it is for their comfort who's there the people at corinth the christians who are there it's for their comfort he's doing this ministry that's causing him distress for their comfort salvation not for them to be saved but for them to grow in the lord because salvation comes from jesus christ alone he's the this word salvation in greek word it means yes save but not salvation in the lord it means that you grow in the knowledge of your of the lord jesus christ you grow in the saving knowledge of god you grow in your faith in the lord and for some of them we're not christians yes they will get to know jesus and they will be saved the reason why he's doing this and it's causing him distress is because he's preaching the gospel going to people telling them about the love of god imagine he wants to bring comfort he wants to be the channel of god's comfort to people and if we are sinning we if they are comforted it is also for their comfort the christians in corinth why they will be comforted because if they are praying for paul if concerned silica paul somebody provided for us or guys i've experienced comfort today and not just that my encouraged entire why this comfort produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer in other words paul is saying if you are suffering also you will remember what happened to us we suffered because of the gospel we suffered because we love the lord we are caring for for people in spite of our suffering and if we experience comfort then rest assured if you're suffering you're also going to experience comfort for example if you experience let's say a heartbreak and then you are asking help from someone who's more mature spiritually than you who also experience heartbreak and that bhagnari story now god rescued him god encouraged that person god gave him god's best eventually and he gave him anchorage oh that's why we get inspired when we hear testimonies of people who suffer the same sufferings that we experience we get encouraged because that's god's way of showing his comfort to other people that's why our message is use your pain and be a blessing to others let's look at verse 7 our hope our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings in other words you care for us that's why that's the meaning of share in our sufferings they care for paul some of them are praying for paul some of them they cry if paul is suffering and having a hard time just as you share in your our sufferings so also you share in our comfort you know when we become a blessing to other people we share in their sufferings and we share in their comfort as well and the good thing about sharing with the suffering is you're not suffering alone the good thing with sharing with the suffering is you're not carrying the load alone a lot of us are carrying our load on our own god has not meant that to be of course god wants to carry the lord with you but god wants to send some people to carry the load with you as well that's why paul is saying thank you christians at corinth that you are sharing with our suffering and if we are comforted you are also sharing with that comfort we are rejoicing together remember in romans what paul said rejoice with those who rejoice mourn with those who mourn it's a mindset of community it's a mindset of being a blessing to other people look at verse eight we do not want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles we experience in the province of asia so he's just recounting what happened to him he experienced a lot of troubles what kind of trouble we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure imagine description yeah far beyond our ability to endure so that we do not we this so that we despaired of life itself they almost died because of this indeed we felt we had received the sentence of death because of the suffering but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on god who raises the dead you know i really i'm really blessed by the life of paul that he always goes back to god the things that he was experiencing death sentence now for other people even for him he almost died but his focus is in the lord he realized that yes but because of god's comfort to him he survived and not just that he has delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us again on him and we have set our hope you know why you will show care to others why you your you will use your pain to be a blessing to other people because your hope is in the lord when you receive comfort from god it will lead you to comfort other people when your hope is in the lord you will do what god wants you to do to comfort other people because hindi is a world and hope hindus solutions here and hope that's why he kept on comforting others that's why he kept on doing what god wants him to do let's read this statement putting my hope in god helps me fulfill my mission to become a channel of god's comfort to others if my hope is in god not in this world then a mission why because he is the source of all comfort that's where my hope lies in and other people their comfort is not the lord so i'm here to tell them guys go to god come get your comfort from him because he's the god of all comfort and he's the god who is compassionate to you and to me definitely young mission mo will become a channel of god's comfort to others you are going to do that what's our message again let's see that use your pain be a blessing can you tell again your friends chat yo use your pain be a blessing now here's what i realize as you continue doing you know becoming a blessing to others and i know some of you are doing that you will be tested why because as you become a blessing to other people sometimes god doesn't remove the pain but still god calls you to be a blessing yes it becomes harder why so you're becoming a blessing but the pain is there because it's sometimes an expectation nothing i'm going to be a blessing to others becoming a blessing but that shouldn't be your focus the focus is okay lord you've i've received comfort from you i'm gonna comfort other people okay lord my hope is in you i'm gonna convert others i'm gonna use this pain to comfort others even if the pain is still there i'm gonna use it to comfort others even if the pain is still there i'm gonna use my life to be a blessing to other people and here's the thing as you become a blessing to other people sometimes those people will even try to hurt you i'm showing comfort in unfair lord guess what that's what happened to paul you know why paul wrote ii corinthians he wrote that because there were some people in the church of corinth or in the area of corinth who doesn't believe in paul who was questioning paul imagine he wrote first corinthians to be a blessing to them he was discipling this church encouraging the churches in that area discipling people training them and some of them were questioning him after some of them were saying some of them are saying just believe in peter believe in apollos you read second corinthians that's why he wrote it and that's why ii corinthians he took us some time to defend himself the one that god is using for the gentiles he it took some time he wrote some things there and as he ended his letter to them this is what he said in second corinthians chapter 12 imagine that he's the one showing comfort na no question he's the one risking his life to go to different places planting churches nakaka being whipped being beaten by rods but still some people there didn't want to believe in him some people there were creating havoc confusion among the churches dividing the church that's why he wrote this letter and in the last part last chapter of this letter look at what he said even if i should choose to boast ii corinthians 12 6 i would not be a fool because i would be speaking the truth now let me give you a background paul was saying here in second corinthians chapter 12 that he went to the third heaven that he experienced something amazing encountered the lord something heavenly magical not magical but heavenly something that is beyond human understanding he experienced something like that because he was trying to point out to them to the christians who were reading this letter that god has really sent him that god is speaking to him and through him but look at what he said even if i should choose to boast in other words he's not saying this paramagmayabang in fact what he's saying is okay if i choose to boast about this i would not be a because i would be speaking the truth but look at what he said i refrain so that no one will think more of me that is warranted by what i do or say in other words don't look at what i'm i've seen i said that but don't look at those things i don't want to boast on those things because those things are not important that that's not the main thing look at verse 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations i know god reveals many great things to me that's what paul is saying but don't focus on those things i don't want to boast on those things therefore in order to keep me from becoming mayabang conceited proud in order look at what god did i was given a thorn in my flesh a messenger of satan to torment me now what is the thorn of the flesh of paul we don't know is it a literal thorn in the flesh i don't think so some scholars would say it's a sickness some would say it's people who are trying to mock him all the time some would say it's another struggle we really don't know what this is but the point is he was struggling as well there was an emotional heaviness in his life a thorn in if in his flesh a messenger of satan to torment him and look at what his request to god was three times i pleaded with the lord to take it away from me lord take away the pain i'm not okay with this thorn in the flesh i'm not okay with this pain and all of us would say that if there's pain in our lives would say that to god the lord i'm really not okay with this so he pleaded with god and it's okay to plead with the lord it's okay to ask god lord i'm not okay with this pain okay please remove it okay but look at god's answer god said to paul my grace is sufficient for you paul for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore i will boast all the more gladly about my weakness about my problem about my emotional pain about my financial pain about my sickness about this death that we're experiencing in the family it's okay so that christ's power may rest on me you know when i read that passage it just encouraged my heart because his grace is enough more than enough that's the word sufficient for me and for you and that's why in verse 10 look at what he said that is why for christ's sake i delight in my weakness and my pain in my suffering in all of these things the independent lord i delight in that in insults in hardships in persecutions in difficulties why are you delighting in that poll for when i am weak then i am strong for when i'm experiencing these weaknesses in my life these challenges all of these emotional pain this heaviness in my heart i am strong when i'm weak i'm strong what's the connection of weak and strength in this passage here's what i realize god's grace and power is highlighted even more in my weaknesses and when i'm in trouble god's grace and power is highlighted even more in my weakness and when i'm not okay it's highlighted why all the more we are humbled before the lord all the more we go to him and cry out to him all the more we grab to him and say lord capitale lord i really need your strength right now because this emotional financial sickness physical or whatever these things are that are happening in my life it's just beyond me but i'm holding on to you because when i'm weak i'm strong because of your grace that's why paul said my grace is sufficient for you that's why he wrote this letter to encourage the people who are suffering as well and to also remind them that even though he was suffering it's totally fine with him because god's grace is sufficient for him i like this passage in hebrews chapter 4 verse 16. look at what the writer of hebrews said let us then approach god's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need look at the description god's throne of grace if you read in the scripture you will you will usually when you hear the word of when you hear the phrase of god's throne it's connected to the throne of grace may throne of justice if you read in the scripture i don't know but usually what you can see in the bible is god's throne of grace you won't see there god's throne of justice god's throne of power god's throne of authority don't get me wrong he has all authority he has all power but you would often hear the phrase god's throne of grace why is it when you hear the word throne usually if there's a throne there's power usually when there's throne there's authority usually when there's throne someone is high up there and you can't approach it until that king or that one in authority would tell to you hey come here you can approach me he can't approach because it's thrown it's a kingdom it's someone who's seated there is in power but not with god's throne the reason why it's described god's throne of grace because you can approach it anytime with confidence you can approach god anytime with confidence because he cares because he is gracious and when you approach it you will receive we may receive mercy we will find grace to help us not necessarily remove the pain but to help us in our time of need that's why god said to paul my grace is sufficient to you for when you're weak paul you are strong because of me you know why would i be a blessing to other people because of god's comfort why would i be a blessing to god's people to other people because of my hope in god why would i do that because of god's grace if i've received god's comfort i tell you it's going to move you to comfort others if your hope is in god then you're gonna do god's mission to be a blessing to other people to be a source of comfort and if you have experienced the grace of god in your life it's gonna motivate you push you to become a comfort and a blessing to other people as well what's our message use your pain be a blessing that's why paul said who comforts us ii corinthians 1 4 god will comfort us in all our troubles so that that's the purpose that's the reason for the comfort of god we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from god there's a purpose for your pain there's a purpose for your suffering it's not to be wasted it's to be used for god's glory and to bring healing to others as well and you know the funny thing is here's the funny thing the more i comfort others the more i am comforted i don't know if you've experienced that but i've experienced that many times when my father passed away and i encourage other people who've experienced pain the more i was comforted when i experienced emotional pain because of a heartbreak heartbreaking situation and i encourage others the more i'm comforted there's a funny thing about that but god uses our faith to comfort others to bring healing to us the more i comfort others the more i am comforted it's a funny thing because when we are inward looking the more we get hurt but when we're outward looking and caring for others and also of course grabbing hold on to god the more we are comforted what's our message use your pain be a blessing how do you use your pain we're about to end okay but how do you use your pain you use your pain in four ways let me give you some practical tips how to use your pain because we just focus on the why and i dwell on that one on the why we need to do it because it's hard to bring comfort to others but again with what we've read if you've experienced comfort from god if your hope is in the lord and god's grace is so evident in your life impossible hindi come a move to comfort and be a blessing to others but maybe you're asking now how do i do this queer march how do i become a blessing to other people here's how you use your pain use your pain to encourage others use your pain to encourage others you got hurt maybe because of a wrong relationship maybe because you made the wrong decision what you have learned maybe in the series or in your suffering use it to encourage other people other people they need to be lifted up and when they hear your story they will be encouraged just like what i mentioned when this pastor's wife before she passed away she was a source of encouragement to a lot of people who were suffering during this pandemic and was my encourage because she was dying already but she was joyful she was suffering already but she was at peace and para if you look at her life experience experiencing pain experience and she's grateful she's focused on the lord then it reminds me to also focus on the lord encourage use your pain to protect it remind others tell them don't do that you can use your pain to protect others so that they won't need to experience that pain use your pain to guide because some people they don't know where to go they're in the wrong direction so they need your story they need your testimony they need to listen to what you have to say so that they can be guided accordingly use this opportunity so many people right now are in pain they are silent about it actually they post it on social media chat them have a zoom call or a messenger call video call with them so that you can hear what's happening in their lives and then don't forget to share the good news also to them because the gospel of our lord jesus christ is the ultimate message that brings comfort to every person in this world other messages will give temporary comfort but the gospel of our lord jesus christ is the one that brings absolute comfort don't forget to share the good news now as we end i want you to watch this testimony some of you have seen this but when i was preparing for this because this person experienced a lot of pain this person was really hurt but he used his pain to be a blessing and you'll be surprised blessing let's watch this video testimony of tom rojas in 1992 my older brother who was a civilian police agent was brutally stabbed to death he was involved in his team in busting a major crime syndicate operating here in metro manila and he was attacked by several criminals involved in robbery illegal gambling and the like he was only 32 38 years old and a father of six young children hearing eyewitnesses account and looking at the pictures of him soak in his own blood were very hard to bear the pain was so overwhelming in anger i couldn't help but join my family's cry for events our efforts to get justice for his murder resulted to nothing even if we had used all our top connections but by divine providence the main murderer of my brother was caught four months later or a crime totally unrelated to my brother's death christian brothers and sisters especially from ccf then meeting at bali verde also from pccc and igsl began praying for me that i would be able to meet this criminal and share god's love and forgiveness but there were two forces in my heart that were waging war at each other as a committed follower of jesus christ i wanted to obey but as a grieving brother i wanted to kill him oh how many times had i played in my mind that i was there in the crime scene to defend my brother and like a hero in the movies destroyed the enemies accompanied by a friend who was a christian police officer i went to camp kramer's detention cell and met the criminal for the first time my heart was literally pounding and i felt like i was going to puke but maintained my composure by god's grace and without introducing my ourselves i began to share the gospel with him using the four spiritual loss as we were about to pray the sinner's prayer he asked me if he could confess his sins to me because he thought i look like a priest and i said okay not realizing how emotionally excruciating it would be as he gave account of how he murdered someone he did not know was my brother and every blow of how he recounted the knives dug deep into my heart and i could have easily become violent if i allowed anger to overtake me but the voice of the holy spirit reminded me of jesus words love your enemies i died for him and i love him as i love you he prayed to receive christ and trusted him as his savior and lord and i gave him the assurance that all his sins have been forgiven and that he is now a child of god and when we were about to leave him he asked by the way brother what is your name and i could choke up and could not speak and the christian police officer told him he is tom rojas he is the brother of the one you murdered a few months back and as soon as he heard that he stepped back and he fell down sobbing on my knees on my on my feet and right there i was looking at him you know

Channel: Elevate Main

Views: 22,921

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Id: AEd47Jih7bk

Length: 66min 22sec (3982 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020