Power in your Pain
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Intro –
The Lord Gives and the Lord takes away
He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
I love this scripture text and I also really dislike it.
I love it because it reminds me of God’s sovereignty. I dislike it because it reminds me of my weakness and how little power I really have.
The Lord gave me a family, three brothers, a loving mom and wonderful dad.
And then, my brothers all died, my mom and dad divorced, my mom struggled all of her life in depression and poverty, my dad struggled all of his life with depression and anger.
I struggled, to live up to the standards of the dead – longed for brothers – lived to impress my dad and earn his favor – ran to drugs to cope with the pain – homeless at 17!
Jesus said -
Jesus said -
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
You –
You –
Maybe today you are asking, “How can I move past my suffering and pain?”
Divorce, death of a child, parent or spouse, loss of dream job, depression, anxiety, broken home, etc.
Today, I cannot give you 5 steps to move past your pain but, I can share with you how God desires to use your pain and suffering to enlarge your soul and to bring Life- Joy – Beauty to others.
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Peter Scazzer in his book Emotional Healthy Spirituality gives four steps God uses to enlarge our soul through pain.
Today, I am going to give you my twist on those four steps, using the Story of Gideon -
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(Quickly recap the life of Gideon - Finish with the earthen vessels and flames in them - broken and fire.)
How did Gideon go from hiding in fear and brokenness to leading the people of God in victory?
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Be Honest With Ourselves –
Be Honest With Ourselves –
Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.
Face the darkness with open eyes.
Face the darkness with open eyes.
a. No more running from reality to a bottle, pills, addiction, porn, work, fantasy world.
When we face the darkness with open eyes, we can
When we face the darkness with open eyes, we can
a. Honest evaluation of our circumstances
b. Honest evaluation of our weakness
c. Honest questioning of our understanding of God
d. Honest acceptance of our brokenness – No more lies – no more games – no more church masks.
Gerald Sittser, “The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.”
Many of us in here have been chasing the sun, running from our brokenness, pain, suffering and never catching the sun light. Our past failures, pains, and sufferings haunt us, always lingering in the background of our lives.
God’s plan for us in not to run from the darkness but, rather run towards the darkness with open eyes. Take on those nightmares in faith and only then do we meet the SON and true light fills our lives.
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Be Honest With God –
Be Honest With God –
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Don’t question God or He will get you. Really?
Don’t question God or He will get you. Really?
God’s Love is not transactional it is FULL!
Follow the pattern of the Psalmists, prophets and Job. (Yell, scream, question, lay it all on the line.)
God desires to speak into our honest questions.
(Personal story – Healing through the death of my dad. Yelling and screaming at God and my dad.)
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Embrace your limits as gifts –
Embrace your limits as gifts –
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, so 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.
The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”
But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”
Our weaknesses force us to rely on His power and not our own
Our weaknesses force us to rely on His power and not our own
What areas of your life does our culture call weak?
(Age, education, marital status, learning disability, race, broken home, physical or mental disability)
When we embrace the reality of weakness, it forces us to rely on the power of God.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
so that no man may boast before God.
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
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Wait in the messy in between –
Wait in the messy in between –
Now on the same night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;
and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.
When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.
They said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And when they searched about and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.”
Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it.”
The stage of life between defeat and victory, dirty and clean, broken and healed, grieving and joy.
The stage of life between defeat and victory, dirty and clean, broken and healed, grieving and joy.
It is in the in-between stage that God begins to show us our idols
It is here that He asks us to destroy those idols.
control / power / pride / wealth / fame / NAME YOUR IDOL
It is like a painting - Blank canvas - outline - crazy mess - finished product - Art.
Or like Spring Cleaning - Starts dirty - chaos as you move furniture - will this ever get done - oh no we made a mistake - finally done - clean, new, fresh.
We naturally hate the in-between stages, they hurt and are messy.
We naturally hate the in-between stages, they hurt and are messy.
They feel un-productive
They never meet the American standard of happiness or success
It feels like we are walking in circles and getting no where.
God have you brought me here to let me die?
Yet it is here, like the wilderness for the Hebrew children that God changes how we view Him, ourselves, and the purpose of life.
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Let your grief move you towards humility
Let your grief move you towards humility
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let our pain bring us to a place of humility
Let our honest questions bring us to a place of humility
Let our lack and weakness bring us to a place of humility
Let the messy in-between bring us to a place of humility
GOD DESIRES TO MOVE THROUGH YOUR HUMILITY
GOD DESIRES TO MOVE THROUGH YOUR HUMILITY
The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’
“Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.
So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.”
Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.
The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.”
THE POSITION OF POWER IS A POSITION OF HUMILITY
THE POSITION OF POWER IS A POSITION OF HUMILITY
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There is POWER in your PAIN
There is POWER in your PAIN
When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death works in us, but life in you.
Like Gideon’s earthen vessels holding the flame, we too are holding a flame, the Glory of God, the Holy Spirit.
And like Gideon’s earthen vessels, we too show forth the Glory of God in our brokenness.
The scars of our past are the places the Glory of God shines the brightest for others to see.
My painful family past and drug addiction are my weak places but, they are also the places in my life where God receives all the Glory.
Not only does God shine through our scars and brokenness, He also uses the pains of our lives to prepare us to hold His glory in the power of humility.
God desires to use our pains, scars, and sufferings to enlarge us to carry His Glory.
Don’t be afraid to show your scars and broken history - Those are the areas His Glory seeps out into the lives of others.
Don’t for a second think God has abandoned you in your time of suffering and grieving.
He is there with you and desires to use your pain to mold you and strengthen you to carry His Glory.
GOD’S POWER IS IN YOUR PAIN
GOD’S POWER IS IN YOUR PAIN