THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING - The Purpose of Pain

well we're in the first 12 verses of James and James who's gonna talk about suffering that's what he said in verse 2 he says count it all joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds and I want you to notice there's a lot going on there but he starts with when you face trials and what he's showing you there is that trials are inevitable difficult moments are coming in your life and the believers the brothers in Jesus are not exempt from this Jesus said to his disciples in this world you will have trouble the Apostle Paul said it through much tribulation we will enter the kingdom that pain is coming and that any one who saves that believers in Jesus should be exempt from that has not read their Bible difficult moments are coming in your life and they will be challenging enough that James calls them a test of your faith they will even challenge what you believe and yet it's interesting James doesn't say what Paul does Paul or excuse me Peter Peter says don't be surprised at this fiery ordeal as if something strange is happening to you Peter says trials are coming and you should expect it James goes further than that and says trials are coming and I want you to not just expect it I want you to rejoice when they come I want the arrival of pain to be a cause of praise in your life I want you to celebrate and then not only does he say that craziness he doesn't just say when a trial comes like a singular trial like your latte is too cold or you get laid off at work or she breaks up with you he says trials plural I want you to Joyce when many trials come when an onslaught of drama arrives celebrate and that he doesn't just say meat trials her face trials he uses the verb that means to fall and be surrounded by to fall into the midst of it's used to other places in the New Testament one is of a man who fell into the midst of robbers who surrounded him and beat him to death and that are near death and then there was another passage where it's a boat falls into the midst of a place where two currents collide and it rips vote apart and that's the verb James chooses I want you to celebrate when you fall and are surrounded by all kinds of pain and then not only does he say all kinds of pain he says multi-colored that's the word he used to describe him I want you to celebrate when you're surrounded by just a wide variety of painful situations just various shades of aggravation and use of drama when you're surrounded by a cornucopia of pain I want you to celebrate so not just when your lattes too cold not just when you lose your job not just when she breaks up with you he says I want you to celebrate while you're drinking a latte that's too cold and you find out you've been laid off and as they assure you out of their building holding that box your phone buzzes and she's saying we need to talk it's over and while you're reading that you get hit by a bus James is saying if you lay there bleeding you should think you know what this is a good thing is actually it's actually great this is great now I'm joking right now because you have to it's some of this right you got to laugh to keep from crying sometimes but but James is talking about real pain and as you read later in the book he's gonna say some of the pain they're experiencing to some of them it's poverty of a complete financial crisis for others it's persecution because of their faith or for others it's because it's physical illness that some ingredient won't go away so James is saying this to real people who are going through real life pain and this is about you too some of you the stress of your job has cost you your joy and it's costing you physically some of you there are family difficulties that are not easily untangled some of you there's lingering physical illness and it's not going to get solved soon and the daily pain is just grinding away at your joy and James says in the middle of all that pain I want you to rejoice I want you to rejoice and I think a fair question to ask is why like seriously why like who does that and this is the point if we're honest where some of you read the Bible you'll see this is why this book is so dumb I mean seriously who does that who celebrates from there in pain well two kinds of people number one is crazy people and that's what some of you like seed that's the thing this book's nuts like who celebrates and paint people who also think they're Napoleon or that they're a coffee mug also go man it's fun to get a beating it's crazy but I would submit there's a second kind of person that can rejoice in the midst of pain and that is someone who knows something not someone who's out of touch with reality but someone who's in touch with a deeper reality that they understand that there's potential locked up in their pain that though this situation is uncomfortable something about it could produce something great and that great experience is so desirable I'm thrilled to see it and my thrill doesn't stay locked up in the future it comes cascading back even into the present moment of pain sample would be obi-wan Kenobi Darth Vader as you recall was recently trotted back out for one of the new Star Wars movies and he remember as he was attacking the little guys in funny helmets with his lightsaber what did they do what you would expect when you get hit by a lightsaber they just screamed right and yet the first person who ever got hit by one was serene was he not do you remember obi-wan just lowered his and let Darth Vader hit him and you go who does that who welcomes a hit from a lightsaber was he nuts no what did obi-wan say strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine he knew though this is about to hurt its producing something great and the piece of that greatness I'm gonna be blue get to go into where I want it doesn't stay locked up in the future I can be peaceful now even when I'm getting hit working out is like this you'll see what happens when you work out you're putting your muscle in crisis you're putting it in pain why are you doing that cuz you know is your body's forced to respond it will grill build greater strength you'll get the physique you want and you'll go oh I'm gonna look fantastic you mirror my clothes we'll sit better and that joy that certainty that you're gonna look better as a result of this moment brings you joy and not just future joy you'll hear guys in the oh yeah that burn is good no it is not it is painful but you are so certain that burning is creating something good you're rejoicing in that and the joy doesn't say long term in the future comes cascading even to the present and so yes your rejoicing Eve while you're in pain do you see it so here's the question what are we called to be nutjobs who think pain is fun or people who know something about the pain that there's potential within it look at verse 3 for you know we know something that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness we can rejoice when difficulty surrounds us because we know that it has potential locked within it that God uses these things we can know God has purpose in our problems that something positive can be produced by our pain that's the perspective of James our pain has purpose under God's sovereign care and so we can praise we can praise God legitimately in the midst of our problems because we know he has purpose in the pain and James will give us two purposes the first one is that God uses pain to produce perseverance that testing of your faith produces steadfastness or perseverance it's the Greek word Hoopoe mone Hoopoe means under and mone means to abide that says God will put you in a crisis moment but it's not to break you down it's actually to build strength into you so you can abide live flourish even under greater weights it's like working out you lift progressively heavier weights why because it forces your muscles to grow so you can lift heavier weights so you can go further you can go faster that crisis has a great cause that pain has a purpose it's building into you perseverance the ability to be strong and fast and abide even under great weight and that's what James says pain will do for you pain is an instrument in God's hand too so into you perseverance to put something good in you you see it in your education my kids just maybe a year or two ago learning the entire alphabet sounded horrendous 26 letters you monsters and as they wrote him out their little hands they're like I can't do it but we kept putting him in situations everyday where they had to learn the alphabet and spell words and sound it out and now what happened we put them in that difficult situation to torture them no to produce in them something good that they can abide in that learning and now they can read bigger and bigger books they can last longer it happens theologically that you maybe had a very infant faith and someone just came to you with a single question about God and it wrecks your faith I remember me in college I was like well surely the Gospels were written by the disciples and then I found out Luke wasn't a disciple now I'm like this man and my faith just began to crumble as I got believing a lie and I had to start getting answers and as I dwelt in that pain I learned more about the Bible and not only did I just get my confidence back I became stronger in my knowledge of Bible stronger in my faith that God put me in crisis not to crush me but to build me that's what a good parent does so what a good teacher does I'm gonna put you in pain but for a purpose not to destroy you but to build you to sew into you perseverance the ability to abide even under greater weight there's purpose in your pain today that's what he's trying to say here God will use it for great purposes if you allow him he uses this test of faith that testing carries the idea of a refiners fire he's assuming you have faith this is someone who trusts God believes God's guiding their story and that faith is put into a fire why to purify it to make it better than it is now and so God will do that with your life and if you understand that you can have joy even in the pain I remember for me growing up my dad lived in Beeville Texas going out to see him every other weekend was not always the easiest thing for me my dad's a good guy in a lot of ways but that was a difficult space for me it was the world of men that for me as a little kid I did not feel like I sit easily into and yet fast-forward decades later as an adult I remember I was visiting a guy that was supporting our ministry and he ran 44 farms one of the largest cattle operations in Texas and I went out there and it was cow paradise it was maybe human paradise but if you're a cow you're like wow as far as the eye can see rolling hills of lush grass and all the Bulls had their own pens just their personal space but can also run free and I'm like this is amazing and then he showed me the barn where they get some privacy so I can make babies and you're like oh look at that and he was showing me and I remember at one point I told him this must be the best place for a cow to grow up and he said oh we don't let him grow up here I was like what why not this place is magic and he said yes but what we discovered was if cows just grew up here where it's easy with the turfs of soft they have weak hooves and so as minute they're sold and they step on a rock it splits their foot in half and it destroys them he said so for their good we ship him off to Beeville and I said say what and he said yes for their good we shipped them off when they're young to be even because it's in the harshness of that terrain they get some of the perseverance and strength that they need and I remember as he say that said that my entire life flashed before my eyes I was like that's why you send them to people [Music] and he's like yeah man are you okay are you crying I'm like it's a good story Bob I would just give me a second Wow it makes so much sense that maybe God has a purpose in the pain even we can't see it that if you believe he's a good dad he uses pain for a purpose too so into you perseverance to make you stronger than you are now and so many of us hear this and we understand that and you go wow that's really great and I could end the sermon here and so God's putting you in hardship to make you a stronger person so endure that pain because he's making you tougher and yet some of you that are more philosophically been Co been that sounds great but the logic breaks down you're like God wants to make you stronger why so he can put you in more difficult situations take a beating why so you can take bigger beatings well hallelujah bring out the band let's worship this is great there's got to be more than that and there is and that's why James says in verse 4 and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing God will put you in that difficult situation to breathe into you perseverance that you can endure it but that's not the whole reason he does it he wants you to endure it because in the enduring of pain he begins to do something he uses that pain to perfect you he uses that pain to add to you if you let steadfastness complete its work and that's fascinating because the implication is you could not you could be going through pain right now and not learn a thing and some of you feel that way hey Ben my circumstances aren't making me better they're making me bitter they're making me doubt God they're not strengthening my faith they've unraveled it well let me tell you something God puts you in this pain and if you let steadfastness complete its work it's gonna perfect you it's gonna do good in you and let me just say by side note this is what happened to your heroes I don't even know who all your heroes are but think about who they are most of them I would guess are people who went through incredible difficulty and rather than being destroyed by it they were improved by it they got tougher skin and a softer heart they got greater vision and they got greater trust paying has potential locked into it to make you someone who can be used for great purpose if you let it let steadfastness have its full effect why so that you may be mature and complete lacking and nothing I love that because he plays on words let steadfastness complete or till EOS it's work so that you can be tedious you can be perfect let steadfastness complete its work so you can be complete and he says if you can be complete lacking and nothing what he's saying there by using those words perfect and complete he's saying there's some things in you and that WordPerfect can be translated and mature it doesn't mean you're sinless but it means that there's a maturing you there's good things in you but they need to be matured and then complete means and there are other skills and understandings you don't have at all and they need to be added to you so James is saying God will put you in pain so that he can perfect what you do had and then supply what you don't so you can be a more complete human being for God's purposes in your life that's what God does fills up what's lacking and adds what you miss so you can be complete a great physical example would be MMA mixed martial arts new sport lots of popularity what's happening there's a mixing of martial arts all different groups getting together but guys always come with one thing they're really good at and so you may have a guy that's a great boxer he's in there and he knows how to throw a jab and knock your lights out and so he gets into that moment and what happens one of the best things that could happen to a fighter is to lose did they get in that moment and suddenly click lights turn out they wake up later thought they were on a fishing trip someone has to explain to them there you got knocked out by a big scary guy and then I go I know that's so incredible it's really scary but then and same kind of get over the emotional damage they begin to look at what went wrong and if they have a good trainer that trainer will say you're a good boxer but it needs to mature you're like a level six and that guy was a level eight so let me use this painful moment to train you let's get you back in the gym let's get you back in the crucible let's get you in training to make your punches sharper and crisper and faster and your footwork better let's improve what you already have but there's also a skill called grapple you don't have it all and that's why the guy picked you up and spun you in circles and threw you out of the ring it was a little embarrassing because you had no idea what to do and so you got to decide strengthen boxing but also learn grappling I'm gonna mature what you have and add what you want so you can believe what they say a complete fighter you can handle any situation you can handle any bully because I've added to you what you like that's what James is saying God wants to do for you God is looking at you and he's gonna put you in pain why because that difficulty shows you your deficiencies you'll get into a moment where you go I don't have the skills for this moment I don't know what to do I don't know how to perceive this moment and I don't know how to handle it well God put you in situations you don't know how to handle yes all the time you hear people say that God will never give you something you can't handle yes he will he will frequently do that to you and you will freak out because you will be at the complete limits of your knowledge but at that moment if you let steadfastness finish its work he's doing that not to hurt you but to help you to add to you what you lack to make you a stronger person there was a book I read years ago crazy for the storm it is about this kid that his dad would frequently put him in overwhelming circumstances make him go surfing in big waves as a little kid and they couldn't be out there in the strength of the ocean and be completely overwhelmed like the little kid can't handle it but dad was there holding him helping him acclimate this is the strength and chaos of nature now here's a surfboard here's how to navigate it so you can ride through and even leverage these circumstances for your joy right then he would take him skiing and he would put him up on a huge mountain and this little like five-year-olds like you gotta be kidding he's like it's crazy right let's go and his dad would put him in an overwhelming moment not to crush him but to create a crisis moment of opportunity to show him this is the overwhelming power of nature and yet here's a way you can navigate it not only to be successful but to thrive and maybe even enjoy it and his dad would put him in these overwhelming circumstances to show in his deficiencies and then he would mature and add to him a skillset that he needed and so when he got older and by older I mean like 13 he was in a plane crash on the side of a mountain and a blizzard and everyone on board died even his dad and as this injured kid began to walk through a blizzard down the snow that was a situation that would kill most people but what he discovered and what he wrote about in the book was my dad by putting me in these situations and being near me sowed into me the skills I needed to survive and thrive and he made it down that mountain alive because his dad put him in crisis for a beautiful cause that pain say the purpose not to just give him perseverance but to give him what he lacked so he could succeed in life and that's what your heavenly father will do to you he's a good dad I'm gonna take you outside your depth not to terrify you but to teach you if you'll let me God uses pain for perseverance he'll use a difficulty to expose your deficiency and the good news is that wounding opens the door for wisdom that's where he goes next he says so you'll be mature and complete lacking and nothing and then James tells you what you're lacking and if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God and He will give generously to all without reproach he says God's gonna put you in a place where you lack wisdom wisdom is understanding how the world works and how to work within it then you'll get into a place where you go I don't know how to navigate this I've never been in this space relationally I've never had an aging parent I've never raised a kid I've never dealt with this relationship I've never had this kind of job pressure I'm completely out of my depth I don't know how to understand the situation and I certainly don't know how to navigate it successfully God will put you in situations where you go I'm out of my depth and in that moment you have a response you could not let steadfastness complete its work and how would you do that pal cry get mad at God for not bending reality to your will well if I was kidding out we're doing like this and tell God what's what and you won't learn a thing or you can come in humility and say I don't understand I need help somebody teach me and humility is the key that opens the door to clarity if anyone lacks wisdom ask on and then he defines God God who gives generously that word can also be translated singly a God who is not duplicitous in heart when you come to him and say I don't know how to do this he says I know I put you here let me teach you let me show you not just how to survive it but how to serpent let me give you what you need to to survive and to thrive let me teach you and he says and I will give single-mindedly to you and I will not reproach you God will not shame you for not having the answers he put you there on purpose he will not shame you for struggling if you're in here saying there's so much about life I don't understand there's so much about God I don't understand welcome and the path of wisdom begins by saying I'm not wise I don't know someone teach me someone helped me and God is willing to do that all he's looking for sincerity in the search and when you realize that he takes me out of my depth not to destroy me but to develop me you can have joy even in the midst of the pain I remember talking with a guy that was going through sqt SEAL qualification training to become a Navy SEAL and as he was going through it we would talk on the phone on the weekend says how's it going these rigorous tests they're putting you through that a lot of people are quitting and washing out he says you know what Ben we just went through a test this week that was nuts like tell me about it and he said well they put us next to a swimming pool and we laid with our feet away from the pool and our heads kind of on the edge of the pool sort of leaning off and we were all in a row together and they took our diving masks and they filled them with water and then put them on our faces covering our face with water and then we had to clear our mask of water I said how do you do that he was like well the secret is to relax and the water drains into your nose drains down the back of your throat into your stomach and if you relax the water drains down your nose and your stomach and it clears your mask I was like what happens if you don't relax he says oh your gag reflex kicks in you instantly vomit I was like did that happen he was like oh yeah he's like the guys have left invited me instantly Rach he's like so we were just in a pool of vomit right away he said but the crazy thing is if you do relax in the middle of that moment the water does drain down and you clear your mask and as he was telling me this moment I just remember saying dude is this like the worst thing you've ever been through in your life and I remember he said no it's awesome and I said you would explain to me how laying in a pool of vomit sucking water down your nose is considered awesome cuz you lost me and I'll never forget his response he said it's awesome because I know these instructors are not wasting my time he said they're not just doing this to be sadistic they know I'm about to be sent on a mission and I may have to get there through the water and in that mission a bomb may go off an attack may occur where all my dearest thrown off and I have to have the ability within myself to stay calm retrieve my mask put it on clear the water to survive and then to continue in my mission he says so I know they're putting me in this pain not to break me but to build me they're sowing into me the skill set I need to accomplish my purposes and so I think it's awesome and I love that it was his confidence in his instructors that led him to praise even in the middle of the pain and it's the same with you and me how can you worship even in the midst of your wounding it's when you have confidence I have a king who loves me my instructor has put me in this crisis not to crush me but to teach me and as I trust him he will build me so I can praise even in the midst of the pain do you see that's what he does and yet he requires the sincerity to the search and that's the next part where he says let him ask in faith with no doubting the owner doubts is like a wave see that's driven and tossed by the wind that person must not suppose they'll receive anything from the Lord he's a double-minded man unstable in all his ways I remember when I first read that I was like well then that counts me out because sometimes I struggle god I want to believe you're gonna meet me in the struggle I want to believe you're gonna help me parent better I want to believe you're gonna help me navigate this relational conflict with my roommate but I don't know if you'll help me maybe you don't even exist I don't even know so I guess I automatically doesn't count for me because James says I have to never weigh never doubt and just go forward with the stoic face and a broad smile like I can't do it but James isn't saying you can never struggle that's why he says God gives without reproach God's not gonna judge you for struggling well God wants to see sincerity in the search he literally says that you wouldn't be double-minded he uses the word to sold which commentators all agree is the first time that word ever shows up in Greek literature James made it up they saying you have two souls two passions two desires I'm gonna trust God today and do things his way but if it's not working out tomorrow I'm going for mine I'm gonna trust what he says about how to navigate relationships unless it's not working then I'm gonna go off I'm gonna trust him to provide for me but if I get a chance to cheat to get ahead and that's just how business gets done around here and so I'll trust God and the world and see how it goes he says you shouldn't expect anything because you're unstable in all your ways you're trying to walk down two paths and you can't do that struggle on the journey but don't try to straddle two journeys God's not gonna help you with that and we know that's true that's true in diets if you say I need to renovate my health I'm gonna do the whole thirty but here's the thing I'm gonna do whole thirty on Mondays but on Tuesdays it's Taco Tuesday and I love tacos so whole tourney's going on hold on Tuesday's okay and then on Wednesday I'm back in it until lunch because there's a like this vending machine by my office has the king size Snickers and those are good and then I'm gonna get back on it on Thursday but then it's hotter and you guess what it's not gonna go well for you and if you look good man this whole thirty doesn't work no you don't work you are duplicity expect nothing do you see it same with dating you can't tell a girl hey I want to date you but I'm also going to date six or seven other people so I want to pursue intimacy with you but I also need to keep the field open right if you have self-respect you're like no now you either walk down the path with me towards greater intimacy or you walk towards a different path but you don't get both and that's what he's saying he's saying I want to challenge you in the middle of your pain to press into me and I want to challenge you with that God is open the fact that life's not easy I want to challenge you at the back end of 2019 leaning into his word struggle well with us just make that decision I'm gonna keep coming back to church I'm gonna show up at community group I'm gonna get one of these books and read it even though six out of seven days I may say well I don't understand that hey man and then I shut it maybe on day seven there'll be a breakthrough where you'll understand it and he'll deepen your knowledge if you don't give up if you stay committed you got to stay on the course and he'll teach you I remember for me same seal buddy brought me to his water o course it was an obstacle course there was a series of ropes hanging over a Olympic sized swimming pool so the way the obstacle course worked is you basically just used your forearm strength to navigate ropes until your hands give out and you plummet in failure but the way it starts is you get up on the high dive and there's a rope and you swing on that rope onto a cargo net and I remember as I got to that he was like a man you just got to know the way the mechanics work the way the ropes situated if you try to Tarzan swing you're just gonna hit the water you're not gonna hit the cargo net like okay he said yeah there's only one way to make it to the net what you got to do is as soon as you jump off the high dive you got to loop your legs around the rope so you'll be swinging backwards and upside down but what'll happen is it's the Rope hits its crescendo you will just naturally rise onto the top of it and then release in your momentum will set you into the cargo net and I was like got it okay sounds good and so I remember I got up there under the high dive and grab the rope and as I'm like 50 feet me I was like I'm gonna throw my head back no no no I'm gonna hit this board with my back of my head and black out at the bottom of the pool you have to fish me out I'm not doing that and swing backwards are you nuts and so I remember I was like there's no way man and so I was looking at it's like you know what maybe if I pick up my knees if I just kind of squint you up on the rope I'm gonna get this done and so I just kind of get it bends way slash hit the water and honestly for a minute I couldn't understand it I was like oh and then it struck me you know what I'm at the Navy SEAL obstacle course maybe I should listen to the Navy SEAL even though it sounds a little crazy and I remember I got there the next time and I tried I was like this is nuts but I jumped off threw my legs up over the rope swinging backwards and upside down and sure enough it's the Rope kind of spun around I'm on top of this rope and as I come up I see the net in front of me I was like no let go the momentum threw me into the Rope net and I grabbed it and remember hanging up there going but I had to commit to the plan if I wanted to proceed and that's what James is saying commit to it commit to it go on a journey decide with the rest of 2019 I'm gonna take this book series like it actually is the Word of God that I'm not gonna tell God no God you don't understand how it plays out in 2019 no I'm gonna say maybe he knows more about my life than I do and maybe I want to learn what he says about how to navigate life and I want to trust him I'm not gonna be duplicitous I'm gonna walk with him and as I walk with him he will give me wisdom now what wisdom will he give you let me give you two pieces of wisdom that pain provides and then we'll close right he'll give you the wisdom to loosen your grip and the wisdom to lift your gaze that's the piece of wisdom that pain will bring you to loosen your grip and to lift your gaze what do I mean by loosen your grip you see it in verse 9 let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation in the rich in his humiliation becomes like a flower of the grass he will pass away for the Sun rises with a scorching heat and withers the grass its flower falls its Beauty perishes so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits some of you read that you suddenly start talking about money in the midst of that because when we handle difficulty we clutch to things for value and a very natural thing to clutch to is money life may be hard but my money gets me out of problems and James says be careful rich man because you will fade like a flower and what you build can go away in a heartbeat and so often God will introduce pain into your life to release your grip on things that will fade some of us right now our greatest comforts come things that are transient and pain will expose while you are trying to make a temporal thing carry the eternal weight of your soul so let me ask you this question ladies you're beautiful is your beauty of value to you or is it your everything what would happen if you lost all of your hair if it was gone tomorrow would you be discouraged or would you be devastated if you are devastated then you realize I've been putting a lot of significance on something that fades because beauty fades Sylvester Stallone he did a movie when he was rebooting his career where he went for a more character actor route so he gained 40 pounds of pure fat by just eating wedding cakes every day and he said the weirdest thing happened he said it wasn't just that I was physically changing I got more depressed more anxious more insecure I didn't want to leave my house and he said it dawned on me I didn't just enjoy working out it was my source and so when I lost my physical health I didn't just lose my health I lost me and that situation exposed to him you were putting the weight of your soul on something that fades as a college Minister I saw this all the time you would see some people show up at college and they were thrilled with a chance to start over his high school didn't go so good and they're thrilled to college I even met some that changed their name you found out later my name is actually Sam look what they just totally rebooted hard reset but I would meet these other guys that man high school they were awesome they were the head of this committee they were the leadership of this deal as they were seniors they walked along the halls and teachers feared them the young wanted to be them and they stood on the mountain of their accomplishments in their leather jacket with their cute name and they just pronounced from their kingdom and then they start stressful year of college wearing the same leather jacket and nobody cares man nobody cares and I would watch people that would bring on a full-blown existential crisis if I didn't just lose the leather jacket I lost me you go well thank god you're figuring this out at 18 you put the weight of your soul on a thing that will fade and so often God will give us pain to show us hey your circumstance is temporary your money will not solve the biggest questions in your life and it can disappear in a heartbeat and I have cried with men on the phone that all of their significance was in their money until 2008 and they lost it all and I talked to some who lost their sense of self and their will to live and I knew others that when all that swept away they hit the solid bedrock of their faith and say but I have an anchor an eternity that is firm ensure and a faith in God became even more sturdy and more strong their faith grew so one of the things he'll give you is loosening your grip on things that fade when I injured my back I remember I hit the ground and there was a season where they weren't sure I'd be able to walk again and I was trying to tell the doctor to hurry up fix it hey man our ministry launches in two weeks so do whatever you got to do you gotta cut it open just do it now I'm ready I'll bite the step no come on I was like hurry up and fix it and he was like hey reality doesn't Bend of your schedule and there's no easy fix to your problem and you gotta be still and as I laid there in that pain I remember it dawned on me I may not be able to walk he told me in that hospital room he may not be able to hold your baby daughter and it dawned on me in that moment there were things that a day before were so important that I realized really aren't important at all I cared about some career and social media things that doesn't really matter what really matters is my family my trust in God with what he's doing in the world and I remember as I laid on that floor I started thinking about God will you do something about pain and then I started thinking about the pain in the universe how the whole world is hemorrhaging in pain how my pain as real as it was wouldn't land on the top ten of human pain on the planet right now and I started praying God will you do something about all of this and he was freeing me from the silly little things I was concerned about to ask the bigger questions of human suffering where is this all going and I remember praying God will you do something and I felt like you said Ben I have and I will what did you think I was doing on that cross when I took on pain voluntarily for you and do you believe the promises I made that the one who was steadfast will receive a crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him and I started praying thank you God I started worshiping in the middle of the pain and started praying Oh God use me to help others know you and use my pain for your purpose however you want he will teach you to let go of things you shouldn't grip and he will teach you to lift your gaze to see what matters most blessed is the one who remains steadfast in that trial because when you do you'll receive that crown of life you'll receive eternal life that's promised not to those who work hard but to those who love him that put their hope in him that God will introduce pain in your life for a purpose to give you perseverance and that perseverance has a purpose it's perfect purpose is to expose your deficiencies through that difficulty and in that deficiency you're meant to cry out in humility God teach me and he'll give you clarity on what really matters in life and the more he gives you that the more you'll see much of what I cared about in life fades but there are so many beautiful eternal things that don't and I want my life to be about those so when I was a college minister we did have a beautiful young woman in our ministry get cancer and as it grew and moved from her skin to her lymph nodes to her brain and her lungs that our abdomen she wrote this in her blog online she said I recently read a quote from Johnny Erickson in my Bible study that said if I could I would take this wheelchair to heaven with me if you don't know Johnny Erickson she's a quadriplegic and she said if I could I would take this wheelchair to heaven with me and standing next to my Savior Jesus Christ I would say Lord you see this wheelchair well before you send it to hell I want to tell you something about it you were right when you said in this world we would have trouble there's a lot of trouble being a quadriplegic but you know what the weaker I was in that thing the harder I leaned on you and the harder I leaned on you the stronger I discovered you to be thank you for the bruising blessing it was a severe mercy in our student room Wow what if we all begin to view our suffering be it physical emotional relational is a bruising blessing a severe mercy our scars our wheelchairs our bald heads all reminding us of God's sovereignty yes when we live our lives and complete submission to our Creator we can look at each and every scar as a sovereign sanctifying scar a scar that because of God's complete sovereignty and his ability and desire to rid us of our sin helps to lead us into the enjoyment of a right relationship with him therein lies the true blessing of being bruised each blessing is found amidst the deep indescribable relationship that develops between you and God as you trust him lean on him and he will turn your valley of trouble into a place of Springs let me close with this how can that not be wishful thinking you hear it a lot in pop culture today something bad will happen to someone logo well you know it's all for the best everything happens for a reason and I'll hear people say that sometimes and I want to ask him whose reason and what if that person's not good and some of you may be asked that question you go what if my pain has no purpose what if life is just cruel and horrible and then we die is this just a hollow shallow platitude everything happens for a reason does it how does that work what's the basis for our confidence that's where James points us release that which cannot hold you and look up because there's a crown of life promised to those who love him James anchors our confidence in eternity how does he do that because of what we talked about last week that Jesus Christ came and he preached love he preached peace he preached blessed are the poor blessed are those who trust God and then that beautiful teacher died a horrible death on the cross and if that was the end you would say what was the point of that really sweet guy just got murdered so life is horrible but when he burst forth from that grace he got to have the last word and he said guess what I didn't just survive the pain of crucifixion I used crucifixion for my cause I used that pain for my purpose I used death to accomplish my will I used my pain to purchase you the worst day in human history became the best day because I was taking your sin and nailing it to your savior and I buried it in my grave and then when I left that grave you can too now I'm going to sit at the right hand of the Father and all those who trust me and love me you will sit there too and I can have confidence that my pain has purpose because his dead because I have an exhibit a that my Savior did it and so it's not just a hypothetical I hope it's true he said I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and I came out the other side so that you have confidence when you enter the valley of the shadow of death you don't have to say pain is fun but you can rejoice in that Valley because you know my God uses pain for his purpose he used Christ and he will use mine and that empty grave testifies to the universe death is not my master it is my servant and pain does not own me it works for him and he harnesses my pain for his purposes so hallelujah praise be to the one who set me free that he was buried in that grave and rose on the third day and that roaring lion set me free hallelujah to a god like that so I can praise him even in the pain that's where our hope comes in the fixed anchor strong and secure and eternity because we have a hero who went there first and we can trust him with our lives and the more we trust him the stronger we'll find him to be lean into him and trust him even in the pain because he's good he's a good dad he's a good coach and he used his pain for his purpose if you

Channel: Passion City Church DC

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Keywords: passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, passion city, city church, passion, passion city church sermons, ben stuart, pain, purpose, purpose for pain

Id: rwUOn3pjNNI

Length: 45min 14sec (2714 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019