Today I want to minister to you a message entitled, "Make the most of your pain". In Genesis 15:20, Joseph says to his brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive.
Father, thank you for being here and for applying your word to our lives.
May we decrease and may you increase in us and be glorified, in Jesus name. Amen
I think at some point in everyone's life, we come to a place where we choose to recognize the hand of God in our lives. I wonder if there's anyone here who remembers significantly a time when you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was doing something with you and in you? They are powerful moments and it's in those times that we can see and appreciate His grace, we can see the faithfulness of what He's been doing in the good, in the bad, in the delightful and in the painful. It's a point in life where we recognize the work of maturity that God does inside of us. How many of you not only recognize the times that God has been good but how many remember the times that God has helped you to grow? You knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was something taking place. It's like you knew you just went from step 1 to step 3 and started to grow by leaps and bounds. There's times I look at my sons who are growing up. How many of you look at your kids and one day they look small and the next day all of a sudden their pants are half way up their shins and their hands are bigger than you remember them.
It's wonderful to watch that growth come into people's lives in the natural and that same kind of growth happens to us in the spiritual. They are defining moments, things that happen to us and in us and through us that begin to shape us for the rest of what God has. All of us will have painful and troubling experiences. If you thought the day that you gave your life to Jesus everything was going to be hunky and dory, you are sadly and mistaken. What we do is serve a faithful Lord. It's in those times that we will either allow God to work in us and to grow us or we will choose to get bitter and discouraged and even frustrated.
There will be days that we will see what we are choosing in our situations. I know more than ever now because of things that I have gone through. It is easy to recognize my attitude and response to things that are happening. It's fun because I can see things happening and I might just want to get depressed and maybe in the past I'd let that depression come and get discouraged and go to my room. I don't suck my thumb anymore, I'm a man. Sometimes men don't suck their thumb, they just watch a lot of TV, It's just as mind numbing. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Sometimes I'll find myself getting angry or bitter and frustrated and I know I've got a choice. I could either stop it then or I could just get on with it and ruin a few more days. The truth is that now we recognize those times when those attitudes are coming and we can see what we are choosing. How many of you know when you can recognize things and choose, you know there's wonderful growth taking place in your life. If we choose bitterness it will hurt us more. If we choose God we will grow and become even more than we dare to dream we could ever be in this life.
Listen to me, and I want you to mark this, it will happen early enough in your life that we will have time to enjoy the benefits of His goodness. If as Christians we will surrender when we recognize what God is doing He will give us plenty of time to enjoy maturity. If you look at Genesis 50:15-20, "When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said perhaps Joseph will hate us and will actually repay us for all the evil that we did to him". Remember, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Jacob, when he discovered that the son he loved so much was alive, he of course was thrilled and embraced it, and Joseph began to bless his brothers for his father's sake. As soon as Jacob passed away, the brothers came to the conclusion that maybe the only reason that Joseph hasn't done anything to us is because Jacob was alive but now that he's out of the way, it doesn't matter anymore. They started to get worked up a little bit.
Verse 16, "So they sent messengers to Joseph". They wouldn't even go to him themselves. "Before your father died, he commanded thus you shall say to Joseph, "I beg you, please forgive the trespasses of your brothers and their sin. For they did evil to you, now please forgive the trespasses of the servants of the God of your father". Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and said, "Behold, we are your servants". Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God but as for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people".
Joseph is the most wonderful example of making the most of your pain. As a matter of fact, because he learned through the painful situation he went through, he became the bigger man. He became the one who
understood, he could forgive. He wept when his brothers came to him because they were still stuck in the past. Joseph was done weeping over the injustices done to him, he was done feeling like he had been ripped off. He was done feeling like he had spent years in jail and they were wasted years. He saw what God did and how God elevated him to a place of wonderful authority and prominence and in that instead of wasting his time on revenge and in discouragement and bitterness, he said, "I'm going to make the most of this, not only am I going to thrive in the life that God has given me, I'm going to make sure that even those who did me wrong are going to be able to move to another level themselves and become bigger men because of the pain that I have gone through". What a wonderful example of what Jesus has done for us.
You can make the most of your pain when you realize that God will protect you from evil ad that He will work things for our good. The saying that in every life some trouble must fall is true but the promise of God's Word is that he will protect us from evil. He will not spare us from pain but He will protect us from evil. Christian, I want you to know this, you must hear me, and I have found that the more I want to walk with Jesus, sometimes there's going to be more pain in my life. Why? Because the more I'm going to be like Jesus, the more this flesh is going to have to die. The more I'm going to be like Him, the more I'm going to have to get this self centeredness and arrogance out of the way. How many of you know that's a painful thing? Flesh will not go away without a fight. As a matter of fact it's something you and I will face everyday. How many have found that to be true? Aren't you glad that you're not perfect?
When you serve God there will be things that will hurt us but as believers they cannot harm us. There is a large difference between hurt and harm.
Evil's intent is always to destroy. Hurt is temporary and with Jesus all hurt can be healed. Harm and evil never heals. Psalms 121:7 says, "The Lord shall preserve or keep you from all evil and He shall preserve your soul". That doesn't mean that bad things won't happen but the fullness of those bad things that happen are never going to destroy.
Listen, as a believer, you have a choice to either believe that Word of God and walk in it and live in it and know that you stand protected or you can step out from under the covering and not believe what it says. I'm going to tell you that if it's as simple as trusting God and understanding that no matter how hard the situation is that God will preserve me, then I'm standing under the umbrella of His protection. Lord, I believe, because the Lord has always been good. As a matter of fact, many times what is intended to destroy us, through the power of God, becomes the means and the process by which He strengthens us. It's amazing how through those difficult times, what the enemy meant for evil, God means for good.
We know this verse, Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for the good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose". As Christians, we don't know that all things, we say this verse but we don't know. There is a difference between saying and knowing. There is a difference between acknowledging and living. Here's the difference, when you know these things, when the problems and the pain begin to come, it will change the way you think about things. It's changed the way that I'll walk into things and walk through those things and walk out of those things because God has made the promise "And we know that all things work together for the good of those who are in Christ". For the good. Those painful experiences God can make good.
There are times when I recognize them coming now, Instead of getting timid and frustrated and hanging on and getting that knot in the pit of my stomach. How many of you are old enough now that you see things coming and you know what's about to take place, you can read it, that's called maturity. When you were a kid, you got to the top of the hill but you didn't realize your brakes weren't going to work if you didn't use them at the top. Now as an adult, when we were in Tennessee, I love the mountains and my wife hates the mountains, the steep curves. It was beautiful. We went up one road where the van was straight up and down and I thought, "Dear God, Physics dictates that if this goes any steeper, my van is going to flip over backwards". Then you come to a turn that is a 90 degree angle that goes straight up another hill.
Because I can see things coming now as an adult, when I'm going up this hill, instead of moving over when I get to the corner and get in the middle of the road, I hug the wall. Why? Because I realize that not everyone is smart enough to use their brakes at the top of the hill that I'm climbing from the bottom and they can't see me from around the corner. As I'm hugging the corner one day and my son is asking me why I'm doing that, I tell him, "Because I don't want to get hit" and as I'm saying that, some dude came flying around in another minivan at about 45 mph on a mountain road in my lane. Now, how many of you know I'm alive and well? I am alive and well because I understood I could see what was coming and I got over to the side of the road. First of all, my kids learned how to drive a little bit and secondly they also learned the faithfulness of God.
Listen to me, there are times now when I can see things coming and instead of getting worked up about it I just take the action that I know something good is going to come out of it. It's called a different perspective, then you just get into the thing and you enjoy it. When we were at the top of the mountain and I put my car in low so I could go down, I could have gotten nauseous and sick just looking over the edge, or I could say, "What a beautiful view and let's just get down". Listen, what happens when you're going through those circumstances? What's your perspective? The Bible says, "And we know that all things work for the good of those who love God". Two of the greatest words in the Bible that I love are, "But God". In Psalms 73:26, "My flesh and my heart fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever".
It's through those painful times that we could become stronger. Life may do things to us, people may say things, the devil may war, things around us may fall apart but God is still God. God is still our Savior, God is still our provider, God is still our protector and we know that God, to those who belong to God, all things work together for the good of those who are in Christ.
One of the most powerful things that I hear people say in painful situations is that "God is trying to teach me something". We make the most of our pain by learning something from it. I believe that when people say that God is trying to teach them something that it's one of the greatest statements of trust and faith that I've ever heard. What are you trying to teach me, Lord? The truth is sometimes things happen and God does permit things, It may not be something He planned directly for your life but I want to tell you that nothing that happens in our life is wasted if we'll learn from the Lord. Sometimes pain is self inflicted by poor choices, like a child touching a hot stove and as soon as they learn that its hot they pull it away and they learn. The truth is that sometimes through pain and suffering we grow.
I remember at "Real Life Children's Ranch" when we were with those kids and now I do it with my own, I always look at the kids and say, "You can learn from my voice or you can learn through pain and suffering". Pain and suffering are also known as persuasion and reason. You can choose to learn through what is being said and the instruction or through pain and suffering which are great ways to have persuasion and reason brought into your life. The paddle in our house has many names and one of them is the great persuader.
Sometimes God allows that pain and suffering to grow our character. The truth is that sometimes life just happens. We can get so religious sometimes and try to explain everything but how many of you have ever had things just happen and you don't know why? I want to speak to Christians, when people are going through stuff, if there's not an obvious example, we get real religious about it. We say things that just don't even help. Listen, how many of you know that life happens? It just does.
There are things we can't explain, we don't even understand all that God is doing. If you think you understand it all then please come to my office someday and explain it to me. There are a lot of things that I just don't get but I do know that God is faithful. Those things don't have to be wasted. Let me ask you, "What have you learned about yourself through your painful times? What wisdom have you gained? What did you learn about God? What did you learn about His character? What did you discover about His love for you that you've never known before"? The truth is that there are many benefits that Christ offers and sometimes we talk about all the benefits of just the things that we can read but look at all the benefits God gives us through the things that we experience.
Psalms 103:2-5 says this, "Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles". This Psalm was not written by someone that had everything in life going smoothly, this was written by someone who said, "Listen, I am not going to forget the Lord and all of His benefits, not only the things that He's done for me but all the changes that He's done in me and through me, all the things that I have learned and grown in", and he says, "Bless the Lord, look what He's done.
When I've been down, He's crowned me with loving kindness, when I've been in sin, He's given me His righteousness. When I have been sick, He has healed me. When I have been lonely, He has comforted me and been a friend that sticks closer than a brother". What a marvelous thing, we can never know those things except we go through times that they might not be there and available to us and then we see the faithfulness of God. This Psalm, It was written with such deep understanding.
There are 3 important things we can learn through painful times. Number 1 is that we can learn to depend on God. Number 2 is that we learn to obey His Word because sometimes we try to do things our own way. How many of you have ever been stubborn enough to do things your own way and find out it doesn't work? Number 3 is that it helps us understand how God can bring good out of bad. The truth is this that the earlier we learn it, the longer we get to live life with an understanding that God is faithful at all times. No matter what we're in, instead of feeling hopeless and helpless and visionless, we get to step into that and know that God is going to do something wonderful.
Watch this, we waste our pain when we become angry, bitter, unforgiving and depressed. The title of this message is, "Making the most of your pain". So on the opposite side, let's not waste the pain that we go through. Unhealed wounds result in poor attitudes and they negatively affect our behavior towards others and it limits our capacity to love.
Psalms 147:3 says, "God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds". I want to tell you that there is a difference between a band aid and being bound up. In the body of Christ, a lot of times we just say and do things that is like a band aid. How many of you have ever seen people that hurt deep? You have to understand that the power of God is a wonderful thing. The Word of God is powerful, when God says He's going to do a work, it doesn't mean that everything is going to go away but it does mean that He's going to heal. You've got a choice, sometimes as Christians we do things so goofy. God binds up the brokenhearted. The Bible says He pours in the oil and the wine and He begins to bind that thing and wrap it. How many of you know sometimes healing takes time?
Man's idea of healing is, we have a doctor in here, if you want to heal the inside of the body and it needs something, somehow it's got to get in there and if it can't be taken orally then we have to stick a needle in the body to penetrate so we can get to the deep thing, that's man way of healing, It's the best we know how. Medical doctor's are amazing and they do great things but sometimes to get to the healing it hurts all the more. Listen, Jesus will bind up the wound and do a work without doing more damage. God doesn't want to just put a band aid on things. God will heal. Church, do we believe that? Do we believe in the power and anointing of God? Do we know that God is going to bind it up.
Listen, when God wants to heal you, don't fight it. Make the most of your pain. If you've got it then don't just sit there and ignore that its there or don't let people help, go and receive it. This church is a place of healing. I want you to listen to me, marvelous things are happening, you can look here in the summer and you can see that we're still full 80-90%. We need to build as the winter comes back and as people come back from vacations. We're working on things to get other buildings. All that is wonderful but my prayer is that as a church, as we grow, we don't need to be reaching for the sake of reaching, what we need to be doing is healing and helping through the power of God. This church is to be a safe place, a haven of rest, a hope. Some of your greatest days will be spent here with joy and laughter, some of the best friends you'll ever meet will be here, some of the people that will annoy you the most will be here, that's family. You know what I'm saying? My sisters and I fought while we were growing up, they were good fights too. Now we can call and talk, It's marvelous.
In the family of God, You'll have some of your best fights in church, but fight fair. Glory to God. Some of you will have some of the greatest experiences of your life here, some of you will meet your spouses here, some of you will raise your children and watch your grandchildren be born and dedicated. In all of that is to know that we know that the power of God is at work and alive, that people can be bound up when they're going through the greatest times and the hardest times, that regardless of that they know the power and the wisdom of God. When everything is going good, people will receive and grow and become strong in the Lord and that when we go through the hurting times we'll be healed and still grow strong. Make the most of the pain. When you hurt, press through the pain. Listen, many people stay hurt and bitter too long and all of that is a waste of time and energy. Press through it and move on, pray, read the Word, forgive, Too many people live to relive. I learned that it just drains me, it holds me in a prison of hurt.
What I need to do is when God comes and binds up my wounds and heals those things then I need to move on. It's not just, "Get over it" it's "Get past it". The world says that when you're still hurting and the wounds are still open, "Get over it". There are some people, you've been healed and you're still there then you do need to get over it because it's in your way, you need to step over that thing. I don't mean it in a bad way. How many of you feel my heart this morning? Move beyond.
I'm going to end with this point, make the most of your pain by making you stronger. A wise person once said that what doesn't kill us will make us stronger. For the believer one of the greatest realities is that even when we die we're going to heaven so we're stronger than ever. All things work for the good of those who are in Christ. If that van would have come around that corner and smashed into the driver's side since I was the one closest to it then I'm on my way to heaven. Although I would have missed you this week, I would have been looking down having church. Truly, I'll be stronger than ever if that's what the Lord wants to do. A broken bone heals stronger than even before it was broken. Those who have gone through things know that the enemy wants to use weapons to hurt them and to stop them but the truth is that through Christ we become stronger because of the hard times.
Psalms 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart. 1 Peter 5:10 says, "May the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a little while". Some of you are a little ticked off at God because you've had to go through some suffering. After you have suffered a little while watch what it does, "Perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you". I want to tell you, you show me a Christian who hasn't been through a painful time with the Lord and I'll show you someone who's still doubting whether He's God or not.
You show me someone who is wondering if God is still God or if He's faithful and who isn't growing close to Him and is still walking in sin and struggling with the flesh and the world, I'll show you someone who has yet to have gone through a real painful experience surrendered to the Lord. There is something about the believers who have gone through hard things, they are settled, strong, and established. I have watched Christians who have had family members die in horrible ways, I have talked to Christians who have had things happen in their families that have been difficult, gone through sicknesses in their body, gone through financial setbacks, gone through difficult marriages, those who used to be unsettled and unestablished but now because they have gone through those hard times they made the most of the pain and after a while of suffering, we watched them become powerful people in Jesus.
You know, the song, "I Shall not be moved" was not written by a stubborn fool. It was written by a mature believer who had watched some very painful things happen in his life and at the end of it he said, "I shall not be moved". One of the greatest benefits of the painful experiences of our life as believers is that no longer do the things that the enemy throws at us shake us anymore. That doesn't mean that you're a man of steal and you can just take it all because nothing hurts. How many of you know pain hurts? Isn't that deep? Pain hurts but it does mean that despite the pain you won't be moved.
2nd Corinthians 12:10 says, "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak then I am strong". Sometimes being a Christian sounds like crazy talk but I'm telling you that I see those things coming to life now, it's not that I know that I'm going to enjoy everything but I do know that God is going to work all things for the good. We make the most of our pain when we use our experience to help others. I want to speak this to you, the pain that you've been through has great value. The things that have hurt you, the things that have troubled you, the greatest trials and tribulations that you and I will ever face have great value in the kingdom of God.
We waste our pain when we fail to share our experiences with other people and we minister that love. The truth is that in my family I have a sister with mental illness, a brother that's run away from home and is now restored, there's been drug use, there's been abuse, there's been rape, there's been hurt from sin. I've been through a lot of stuff but it's amazing how in all those things the Lord has opened doors to minister and touch people's lives. I want to tell you, Christian, the Bible says that we overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
The truth is this, some of you have been through some things and the world says to keep quiet, cover it over, don't let people know. We're not foolish either, we don't just open our lives to people who are going to use and abuse us either. I've been with people who after I've been through some things, they'll come up to me and say, "Who are you to talk about that or who do you think you are?' Dude, I am nobody but I do know what Jesus has done in my life and you can't take that away. I don't care what you think about me, say about me, think about my family, where I've been, what I've done, all I know is Jesus is good. Dude, I just want you to know that anytime you need some help, come on back but if you want to, keep dragging me through the mud, enjoy yourself, go get yourself a big old pickup truck with big tires.
I want to read this in closing, 2nd Corinthians 1:6-7 says, "Now if we are afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. If we are comforted it is for your consolation and salvation and our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings so also you will partake of the consolation".
