In Search of Wisdom – Dr. Charles Stanley

more important than God removing the difficulty of pain and suffering more important to him than that is that you and I learn something that we benefit that we walk away from whatever we're going through in life being able to say deeply within our heart honestly thank you dear God for all you've brought me through thank you dear God for what you're in the process of teaching every today on InTouch wisdom in the midst of trials are you going through some trial in your life that you don't understand you don't know why it had to happen to you you look back and you ask one of the questions what did I do to deserve this you can't come up with an answer God why have you allowed this in my life can't come up with an answer and to be truthful and honest what you want most of all is out of this I want to escape it I won't freedom from it I wanna I want all this pain and hurt and disappointment and hopelessness and helplessness and all the things that I'm going through naturally I just want out of all this as quickly as possible do you think that's the will of God you say well sure it is because he's a good God well maybe in a few moments you realize that God has something far more important from his perspective than simply getting you out of this difficulty hardship a trial because what I want to talk about in this whole message today I want to talk about wisdom in the midst of trials how are we to respond how does God respond what is he up to in allowing all these things to happen in other words do you want to benefit from it you just want to get bitter and resentful and hostile toward God because of it there's a choice I can benefit from whatever difficulty I'm facing oh I can get bitter blame somebody else blame God and missed the whole point so I want you to turn if you will to the book until the back of the New Testament in first Peter and I want us to look at this first chapter and the first few verses here because he's talking to people writing the people rather who are going through some very difficult times they're being persecuted because of their love of the Lord Jesus Christ and their devotion to him and that's where they've got some questions listen to what and read Peters awesome response to what they're going through and so he begins in this first chapter beginning in verse 3 listen to what he says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead he says we have a Living Hope this is the mercy of God to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you that is for you who protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times now watch this in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ and though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now but believe in him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory now think about it for a moment I don't know what you're going through but more than likely you've asked a couple of questions why has this happen to me and God why don't you remove this and remember this more important than God removing the difficulty of pain and suffering more important to him than that is that you and I learn something that we benefit that we walk away from whatever we're going through in life being able to say deeply within our heart honestly thank you dear God for all you've brought me through thank you dear God for what you're in the process of teaching me in this many people don't want to be taught many people just want a quick escape but a wise mental woman does not want to go through heartache and suffering and trial and all the things that can happen to a person and just come out empty hopeless and helpless and thinking again wonder what God is up to in my life and all this do I believe that God loves me enough that he's up to something good so from the viewpoint of wisdom what are the purposes for these trials in our life and the first one is simply this as he says in this first chapter of first Peter listen what he says he says and this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you've been distressed by various trials for what reason he says look right now you've gone through a difficult time so that and all of that to this purpose what is that that the proof of your faith and that is not proof in like we think that but but prove that is being a proof that's what that word means and all of that our faith would be approved with proof that is strong being more precious than gold which is perishable that he says in God's eyes look at this your faith is more valuable as far as God is concerned than gold and silver and all the rest so he says one of the reasons that we're going through it is for God to do what he's going to do something to your faith he's going to strengthen your faith one of your greatest assets is your faith because it's by your faith and how many times we go to the scriptures and we find verses in the Bible about prayer and linked with that of a trusting God and so God tests us by allowing us to be persecuted hurt pain suffering all kind of loss whatever it might be and as he watches us walk through that and he as he sees our faith growing and we persevere and we don't quit we don't give up we don't grow bitter and resentful and hostile toward other people because of what's happening to us what happens our faith grows and the greater your faith but stronger your personal relationship to the Lord now a second thing is this the testing of our devotion to our loving the only loving when everything's going my way can I honestly say that I love Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and it's often times we find out where we are test our devotion when I feel pain more than I think I can bear can I still say god I truly love you it's those tests in which we find out who we really are what we like then of course there is the purpose of purifying our life and when I think about God purifying us think about this pain is that it has a purifying factor in it there's something about pain that purifies it reaches the depths of our soul in our spirit and brings us to the reality and the truthfulness about ourselves and a person can go along in life and so to get along as they would think and I'm doing violence a Christian and lot of things in the life that shouldn't be there and all of a sudden the bottom drops out of the life there's pain suffering heartache troubles and trials and then what do they do they want to cry out to God to help them and most of the time what is he going to do he's going to start not with the physical ailment he's going to start in the spirit in the heart what's going on in your life and many people prolong the suffering because they will not acknowledge that God is in the process of purifying their life now another reason is that God takes an opportunity to do what to show himself strong in our life we go through trials and heartaches and we thank God how am I going to handle this and God steps into that situation and demonstrates his awesome power and he demonstrates what he's able to do and what he's willing to do what he can do in your life if you willing to listen to him so God has purposes he doesn't let these things go by without specific purposes and so that's one of them then his purpose is to provide christ-like character in our life so if we stopped right there we'd say well God have any purpose in all this yes he does and that's some of the purpose and I just add one more and that very clear in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 listen to this verse 3 says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God he says one of the primary reasons he allows these things and I'd like to do what to equip you and me to be able to help other people through that difficulty for example let's say that you're going through some real bad difficult in your life maybe it's maybe it's a physical thing some pain who do you want to talk to somebody's in perfect health never had a problem at all in their life wonder why you where you are and no you don't if you're going through something in your finances and you don't know which way to turn you want to turn to somebody who has been there who has wisdom and knowledge about their finances you can take any aspect of life because God listen God intends to watch this he intends that you and I profit from all the hardships disasters that happened in our life he has something good in every single one of them now if you believe that and I certainly hope you're doing and and you can look at the description lots of scriptures then I should be able to walk out of here saying you know what enough of this complaining and moaning and groaning and feeling like a victim and blaming somebody else God's up to something good in my life oops I know it hurts God but but I know Europe for something good in my life you know change attitude now watch this just physiologically when you're added to you gets right it's amazing the effect that has on your physical body I'm not saying you think yourself into healing but I know this when I understand that God is up to something good even though I'm hurting whatever the source of it may be there's going to be a feeling there's going to be a sense of encouragement because you don't see it it's just isolated pain isolated disease or isolated loss or somebody has attacked you for something you see God working in your life in an awesome way now we need to we need to wisdom to discern the proper response how am I going to respond to these things and as we said you can be bitter and resentful hostile what's the right way so let's think about it for a few moments we can rejoice when we are convinced that the following things are true that God is in control of the time and intensity of my trial very important that understand that that he's in charge he's in control the time of it and the intensity of this pain or disaster whatever it might be secondly that he has a specific purpose for allowing it if I can really believe that he has a specific purpose for allowing it that I'm going to be able to walk through it with confidence and assurance and I'm going to be able to benefit from it but I must believe that thirdly that it's designed to meet a specific need in my life let's say you're going through a difficult time in your life let's say that your loved one has walked away from you or the person that you owned the marriage just walked away who are you going to talk to - about how you respond somebody who's happily married never had a problem everything just fantastic no you're not you're going to somebody who's been there you're going to somebody who's walked a path that you don't want to walk but you're walking it it's not not something you chose but it's something that you've had to deal with and so is to meet a specific need in your life and you know what happens one of these days God begins to use you in the very specific way watch this carefully remember this whatever pain suffering heart a hardship you go through not only does God have a purpose but it's part of his equipping he's equipping you and what does that say so you can feel what the other person feels since you've walked there and God's worked in your life and you've been through the pain to hurt the disappointment and the shame or whatever it might be you've been that you know how that feels then somebody can say well here's what I'm going through I don't know how to handle that when you can say I've been there it is amazing I have been there for words a powerful you see what do you and I go to Jesus my merit I have been there look at the cross he's been there why do we read the epistles and Paul wrote in prison because he could say I have been there and when you and I go through those kind of trauma times in our life he is equipping you and preparing you to be able to say to others I have been there the trial is going to be to my benefit if I respond in faith if I'm trusting him lord I don't understand it I don't like it but I'm going to trust you Jesus that no matter what and though you'll work it out to my benefit and then of course do our running truly believe that correct that that God is developing cry like character in my life and if he is when these things hit maybe that I have to say to somebody would you please forgive me for wrong in you now watch this my willingness to ask for forgiveness is part of his character building the person to whom I say it it's part of their character building because they have to decide whether to forgive me or not you see we're also in a mingled intertwine God is up to something good in every single aspect of our life even listen even in our failures he's up to something good we sing that song when the fall down he picks me up he does and if I should ask you this morning how many times if you have been picked up by God we don't have enough fingers and toes because he's picked us up so many times you know why he's not giving up on us and he doesn't want us to give up on him and these trials will also help us measure our spiritual growth and I can look back in my life just like you can and it may be something you're going through today you had to go through five years ago you didn't thought oh god I couldn't handle it watch this carefully God guards every aspect of our life and he knows exactly when you can handle what he's going to put on you because remember his goal is never to defeat you but to develop you into Christlikeness and so he's governing every single aspect of our life don't waste your sorrows your heartaches your pain your suffering your discipline don't waste that by wrong response but just telling Lord I don't understand it I don't like it it hurts this wouldn't there wouldn't be my choice but father I'm gonna trust you you know what's best for my life you know what you want to do with my life you know however you want to use me in somebody else's life so God if you just enable me I will persevere and keep walking your path no matter how deep in the belly it goes I will be walking on the path trusting you to take me through all the way to the other side I don't know what you're going through in life but if you will just take what you've heard and applied to your heart your life will change and you'll be grateful to God that you've listened and that you responded if you've never trusted Jesus as you save you you're on your own and that's not going to work if you're willing to trust him as your personal Saviour everything will change you do that by confessing your sentiments listen you're a sinner you've sinned against the Almighty God you've rebelled against him acknowledge it ask him to forgive you nothing cause you're gonna do better because when Jesus went to the cross the father placed all of your rebellion and difference in sinfulness on his son nailed into the cross shed his blood and the shedding of his blood paid your sin debt in full he'll transform your life it's a decision you have to make now trust that you're wise enough to say Lord not my will but your will be done amen and father how grateful we are they will never

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 253,658

Rating: 4.8794565 out of 5

Keywords: Charles F. Stanley Dr. Charles Stanley Dr. Stanley In Touch InTouch God Jesus Holy Spirit Christian, Charles Stanley, Wisdom (Media Genre), in search of wisdom

Id: e1acuI_Ukeg

Length: 19min 24sec (1164 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2015