Wilderness 6

Wilderness Wanderings

Part 6

"The Wilderness of Pain"

2 Cor. 12:6-10 "And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me, therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then I am strong."

Clearly, the great Apostle Paul knew about pain and suffering.

Back in chapter 11, he describes being shipwrecked and spending 24 hours floating around in the deep hanging on to some piece of wreckage.

He knew what it was to be whipped five times with 39 lashes.

He knew what it was to be three times beaten with rods.

He knew what it was to be in a stinking, filthy jail.

He knew what it was to eat the putrid food of people who were incarcerated.

He knew what it was to be stoned and left for dead----He knew all about physical suffering!

He knew what it was to be put into stocks.

And by the way, stocks in those days you didn't just hang your hands and through wooden holes...

They were stretched to the extremity and put in the farthest possible position and held there with the muscles taut and the legs in the same position and left for days like that.

When you were finally let out you could hardly move.

He knew what it was to suffer physically.

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But no suffering was as severe to him as the care of the churches.

When the church was weak, he felt the weakness in his own heart.

When they fell into sin, he burned inside.

He wrote, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?" (2 Cor. 11:29)

It's clear to me that for Paul, people inflicted the greatest pain...

After all he had done for them, they had drifted away to false teachers--and on top of that had criticized, maligned, rejected and slandered their father in the faith.

People can disappoint, they can reject, they can abuse, they can fail, they can wound, they can betray, they can turn on the ones who love them the most.

And it is other people that can and will inflict the deepest pain in life.

It might be argued that no disease is as painful as false accusation or rejection or misrepresentation or hatred or betrayal.

Yet whether Paul's pain was emotional or physical, we see that he found strength in his deepest pain.

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One of the age old questions regarding belief in God is---if He's there, and if He loves us, and if He's in charge of His universe, then...

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why does God allow suffering and evil?

The wilderness of pain is one of the most troubling, if not the most troubling, of the wilderness experiences.

Chronic, untreatable pain often gives way to despair, and despair decimates our hope.

And when we find ourselves struggling even to have hope, we can experience an incredible sense of alienation and isolation.

Hope means "a confident expectation of good in regards to the future."

The person with hope travels an encouraging road lined with fresh blooms under a blue, sunlit sky.

But a life of despair is like traveling a road with a bleak and barren landscape under an overcast sky.

In the wilderness of pain it seems there is no road ahead, and no sense of where to go and how to get there.

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Pain is common to every human being on earth.

In his suffering, Job said, "Man is born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7).

Jesus guaranteed us, "In the world you will have trouble, but fear not, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

It may not sound like a good faith confession, but the fact is---pain goes with life.

Whether you're rich or poor, you have trouble and pain.

We are fallen creatures and we live in a fallen world.

Sin has dealt us a near-fatal blow.

The result is emotional trouble, marital trouble, domestic trouble, physical trouble, economic trouble....and on it goes.

Have you noticed that we're usually in or just emerging from some kind of pain---if not personally, then the pain of others around us is causing us pain.

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So, this message is not on how to avoid all pain----it can't be done.

I want to look instead at two things concerning pain--How God works IN it, and how to respond TO it...

First, how God USES it...

In our pain:

I. We learn the power of His Word

Nothing drives us to God and His Word like pain!

Ps 119:67 "Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word."

The Message "Before I was afflicted, 'I wandered all over the place, but now I’m in step with your Word.'"

Ps 119:50 "This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life."

Ps 119:71 "My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees."

In every one of these passages we find David testifying to how suffering was the catalyst that led him to discover the power of the Word of God!

He says that his pain motivated him to greater discipline in plumbing the depths of the Scriptures.

He discovered that God's Word literally injected him with life in the midst of his suffering and brought him comfort.

He testifies that his suffering worked for his good in that it motivated him to tow the line with God's commandments.

ILLUS: The healing of my mind

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II. Our deepest life messages are born out of our pain.

If you've been in TURNING POINT CHURCH for very long, you've heard me brag on the power of God's Word.

You've heard me repeat over and over that this is a book unlike any other.

That it is without error.

That it is supernatural.

That it is a Healing Word, a Strengthening Word, an Empowering Word.

All of those statements were born out of my own personal suffering and what I discovered to be true in my pain!

One of my Life Messages is the result of walking through pain and what I experienced with His Word!

So...Our deepest life message often comes out of our deepest pain.

When I know there is a purpose in my pain, I can endure it.

If I can see God's hand in my circumstances, I can go through anything!

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But if I don't see a purpose in it, I will squander my suffering,

I'll never profit from my problems,

I'll never learn from my losses,

And I'll never grow from my adversity, or gain from my pain.

This is what Israel did in the wilderness...

They complained in their pain, murmured, accused God, and pouted, but they never learned to see God's purpose in their pain.

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LISTEN: God didn't even spare Jesus, His only Son from pain!

And it says that even Jesus learned obedience from pain...

"Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered" (Heb. 5:8).

In the same way, Jesus challenged people to use their pain to draw closer to God.

"Blessed are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you for My sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven..." (Matt. 5:11-12)

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A third and last thing about the Wilderness of Pain is...

III. God recycles our pain

ILLUS: Many of us have that plastic garbage can the city gives you that is marked, "RECYCLE."

You're supposed to put in there stuff that some would just throw away as trash, but the city recycles it for someone's benefit.

God does the same thing with our painful experiences.

2 Cor. 1:4 "He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer."

God recycles pain by taking what we learned and channeling it to bless others.

So....Don't waste your pain, let God heal it, recycle it, utilize it and use it to bless other people!

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In our pain we learn the power of His Word

In our pain our greatest Life Messages are born

And God recycles our pain to help others who are hurting