When Prayer doesn't change things B -Debraile snell

your voice to sing the song and he uses your mouth to preach the sermon he uses your house to build or fix things that are broken he uses your imagination to create visions of buildings and ideas that transform the world he uses your gifts to cook the food or to manage the systems on your job and because god operates within man without needing to be seen out front sometimes there is a temptation to forget where we leave off and where god's power begins and so what god does is he gives him a thorn in his flesh so that he is always aware that even when god's power works through us that we are simply conduits of power not sources of power we are instruments and not the source ourselves and so what god is doing is he's helping paul to be mindful that though i'm using you though you have your hand on it it is god that works in you both to will and do of his good pleasure i remember saints when i was about 17 years old i had gotten to the point where i had gotten into weightlifting just a little bit and i remember like what would happen is when my dad and i would go to the gym you know we would go and i remember the big thing at that time was lifting bench pressing 185 and so i remember the first time i bench pressed 185 10 times and i remember getting to press number six and and bench press number seven and i remember my dad doing what they call he would reach down and he would put his hands on the bar and he would give me what they called a spot and so when i got to number eight and number nine and number 10 what would happen is he would give me a spot and help me complete my journey for the day now i need you to understand that like the arrogance of a 17 year old is very irrational and so i couldn't wait to get home to tell all of my friends how i bench pressed 185 10 times i called all my friends i called my grandmother i was walking around the house without a shirt on for like four days in a row i mean i was just feeling myself and and eventually i guess my dad got tired of my boasting and and my arrogance and as i remember travis the next day that we went out to go and live uh you know i was doing the 185 i'm confident i know i got this man i've done this before and i remember man i got to number four and i got to number five and i got to number six and i got to number seven and i got to number eight but this time no spot came and even though i was able to lift it seven times when i got to eight and i got halfway to number nine it came crashing down on my chest and see the thing that i realized about the spot is that even though i had my hands on it it was the strength of my father that was lifting up for me the things that i could not lift for myself and the thing i need somebody to get is that even when god allows you to lift great weights in your work in your career and in your ministry just because you have your hand on it and the only way it succeeds is because god gives you a divine spot from glory and helps you lift the things that you will never be able to lift by yourself third thing that the thorn does for paul is that the thorn keeps him relatable isn't it interesting beloved how paul is able to go around and heal all these people but he can't do anything for his own situation and see the reason this happens is because what it does is it keeps paul's ministry from becoming condescending in other words paul does not minister from a place of wholeness he has the minister like us out of his affliction and out of his brokenness so that what paul is never able to do he's never in a position where he's able to minister down to others because he ministers out of his brokenness he doesn't minister downhill he ministers over to those who are dealing with the same afflictions that he himself has to deal with and see this makes sense to me this seems exactly like something god was going to do because how is it that paul can preach to an afflicted persecuted tormented struggling church if he doesn't have any personal struggles to deal with in his own life and say i need you to understand that the whole gospel scenario is based upon the fallenness of humanity do you realize that jesus could have sent an angel with a boom mic to preach the gospel of jesus christ but god's whole method for transferring the message of salvation is one broken man to another broken man to him communicating the glad tidings of salvation in the south we have a saying that says the gospel commission is simply where one beggar tells another beggar where to find bread and see i need us to understand that one of the things i've learned is that one of the things that god does is he allows some thorns to remain in your life some brokenness so that you remain relatable to everybody that you come in contact with because one of the things i've learned this beloved is that if your testimony is too perfect it's intimidating to the broken if your testimony is only i always have faith i pray 17 hours a day i've eaten vegan my entire life i pay tithes on everything that i've had i've never smoked i never drink i've never said a curse word what it does is it makes the gospel feel out of reach to those that need it and see understand the reason that the gospel does not have more power in our witness is we spend our whole life trying to hide and cover up our thorns but understand that the thorns were not given for you to conceal the thorns were simply to be the basis that gave your ministry credibility it gives your ministry validation because what makes the gospel scene attainable is not your testimony of how perfect you are what gives the gospel valid validation is when one imperfect man or woman who is changed by jesus christ begins to relate what jesus has done for them are y'all hearing me tonight saints in other words i need you to understand your testimony is simply this is you sharing your experience of what god has already done for you in other words like your testimony is simply you giving the answers to the tests that you already passed like i teach uh part-time at oakwood university in the religion department and so there are times where where i will teach the same class at one o'clock i'll teach it again at 2 30 p.m and so one of the things i'm the mistakes i made when i first started teaching is whenever there was an exam day is i would give the same exam to the class back to back and one of the things that i would always notice is that the 230 class would always have much higher test scores than the class that took the test at one o'clock p.m and one of the things i learned is that those that took the test at 1 pm they would turn around and give the answers to the test to those who are about to take it at 2 30. and see that's all the testimony is is i'm simply giving the answers to the tests that i've already taken to those who are about to go through what i've already come out of does that make sense to anybody today i see one of the things i want you to get beloved is that it is the things not that we avoid that give credence it's the things that we survive that speak to the power of jesus christ because see one of the things you've got to learn about the things that you've gone through in life i've learned this the hard way is that if you don't take your misery and turn it into a ministry your misery becomes permanent and there are times where we struggle all the time to figure out what is my calling what is god calling me to do what what is my assignment a lot of times you'll find out your ministry at the intersection of your talents your gifts your passion and your pain it is where those things converge that you find out what your true ministry in life actually is story is told of a small town country radio preacher and this radio preacher he would come on every sunday and he would preach messages of the gospel and messages of the cross practical tools for godly living each and every day and it's amazing he would do this for about 20 30 years uh never ever missing a sunday but after a while this this country preacher he actually came down with a severe bout with cancer and so what happened is during his chemo and his recovery he had to come off of the radio station for about three months time so what the radio station did was during the time that he was away they began to replay some of his old broadcasts or some of his old sermons during the three months that he was in recovery and what would happen during the three months when he went around town and people saw him and they had heard that he was dealing with cancer they would come to him travis and say man you're preaching now with more power than you ever have on the radio and he would be astounded because he would say to them that sermons you're listening to are old sermons that i preached years and years ago and i need you to understand that it's not the power of the sermons that change but because they knew what he had gone through they listened to them differently because of the experience that he had it made them that much more relatable third thing i want you to understand about the thorn is this it is what theologians call the theory of meticulous providence and essentially what it means is that god is not averse to allowing evil but what they believe is that god in his infinite wisdom only allows an evil that cancels out a greater evil or produces a greater good and it's based upon the text in romans chapter 8 28 that says all things work together for the good of them that love the lord and them that are called according to his promise now i don't know if you if you really digested romans 8 28 but notice what it does not say it doesn't say all things are good did you hear me tonight it simply says all things work together for good to them that love god and are called according to his purpose and so the way i need you to understand that god is literally like a great crocheter of life that weaves together all of your experiences both good and bad negative and positive and allows them like joseph to come together in a way that glorifies him and ultimately works out for your benefit does that make sense today see the way i need you to see it and i say this the best way i can illustrate it um you know every now and then as a southerner one of the things you know earlier i talked about apple pie but every now and then i like to eat a good piece of pound cake do i have a witness come on i got one witness right now it's amazing saints is is is i love how pound cake tastes in the end but one of the things i need you to get is i would never eat the individual ingredients and pound cake by themselves so so so so so that like uh yo flour by itself is not good all right vanilla extract by itself is not good all right a raw egg at least for me by itself is not good baking soda by itself is not good but isn't it amazing how you take a bunch of individual ingredients that are not good put them together in the same bowl and blend them together put them in some heat and then all of a sudden something that is good comes from individual ingredients that are not good and i need you to know that god is like a master baker who takes the ingredients of your life some that are sour some that are bitter some that are taut some that are individually not good and he weaves it together and one life experience puts it under the weight of trial and all of a sudden a character that is good appears from a bunch of experiences that are not good can somebody say amen and listen this is i've been kind of doing all that to just get here and this is really the tough part because paul prays three times lord take this thorn from me and you notice what god said god didn't say okay god doesn't say i'll accommodate your wish but what god gives paul is the guarantee that all of us have no matter how difficult the situation we face what god gives him is something greater than what he even requested he says i'm not going to take away this thorn but what i'm going to do is i'm going to give you a sufficient amount of grace to be able to stand up under the weight of the buffetings of life each and every day and see beloved this is the ugly side of faith i wish that i could stand here in truth and tell you that if you're a praying person that every day is going to be harvest and breakthrough in deliverance and that everything falls in place just like you want it to fall in place but the ugly side of faith beloved is when you know god has the power to stop a thing and god allows it to continue anyway and see the reason i wanted to take some time and just give this last deposit was because in the earlier messages everything seemed to work out but the truth is they're going to be some of us that are going to leave this place and see miracles they're going to be healings in the body there's going to be a turnabout of circumstance you're going to see children coming back to church you're going to see churches revive you're going to see the spirit of god fall but there is this portion of the body of christ where god's word to you is not that i'm going to heal it's not that the loved one is going to live another 10 years the word is not that financially you're going to be wealthy it's not that everything is going to be well right away but god's promise to somebody in this room tonight is that if it doesn't change or until it changes i'm going to give you a sufficient amount of grace and strength and power to withstand whatever life sends your way and a part of that grace cocktail it is a perfect piece that passes all understanding god will give you a peace that almost is inhuman that gives you this inner strength to be able to handle whatever a given day may bring what god will do is he will give you a joy that operates as your strength and how many of us know that this joy that we have the world couldn't give it and nothing in this world is able to take it away and a part of that sufficient grace is this assurance that behold he comes quickly and his reward is with him and see the good news for the believer is this ah the thing that causes me to get up with a sense of anticipation no matter what i read in the newspaper or whatever i see on cnn that no matter how many hurricanes or earthquakes or floods or tragedies or shootings or racism or sexism or brutalities i see in this world the thing that gives me a sufficient amount of grace is to know that trouble will not last always but one day king jesus is going to mount up on his white house and he's going to come to carry us home the thing that gives us a hope it is this advent message that is a reminder that this world is not our home but that we are simply pilgrims passing through and that one day all of the ravages and all of the pains and the suffering of this life they are temporary because one day jesus is going to pierce the clouds of glory and he's going to stand suspended in midair and the dead in christ are going to rise first and i believe you and me those of us who are alive and remain we will be there to meet jesus when he comes and we'll be caught up in the air to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord this is our hope this is our foundation this is the thing that allows us to smile when we should be frowning it is the thing that allows us to praise when we ought to be silent it is a thing that anchors us when we ought to be swept away it is the assurance that no matter what comes his grace is still sufficient i want to pray for you today and my prayers that god does that miraculous thing that's where we spend our first three messages but for that person that doesn't get that miracle or the person that doesn't get it right away i'm praying that god will give you a sufficient amount of grace father on friday thursday we learn not to depend upon ourselves but to trust you for everything friday we learned it didn't it doesn't hurt anything to ask and see this is where we are we're we're where hezekiah was lord we will accept whatever you allow but but but we don't make our requests known for the miraculous thing to turn around and like jacob we're going to learn how to hold on and not let go until you bless us we're going to cling to you we're going to trust in your promises and in your divine power but my prayer for that person that doesn't go home and see a check in the mail who wakes up and maybe there's still pain in their body who who goes back from camp meeting and children are still outside of the church for that person who is still going to go back to a job where there's persecution and hardship my prayer is simply this that you would give them a grace that is sufficient give them peace give them joy and give them the assurance that you are coming again bless us keep us seal us for we pray it in jesus name let the people of god say man god

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Length: 19min 53sec (1193 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020