When Pain Becomes a Stumbling Block: A Review of ‘The Power of the Holy Spirit’

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
What's going on Central?
[00:00:47] Good to see everyone.
[00:00:48] You look wonderful.
[00:00:50] Look at your neighbors.
[00:00:51] Say you look extra cute today.
[00:00:53] You look extra cute.
[00:00:54] Look at your second choice.
[00:00:55] Say you look cute too.
[00:00:55] I don't want to leave you out.
[00:00:57] We also want to welcome all of our live streamers.
[00:00:59] California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.
[00:01:06] We're praying for you.
[00:01:07] And Washington.
[00:01:08] Give it up for all of our live streamers.
[00:01:10] Hey, don't forget.
[00:01:11] Don't forget, if you're traveling, vacation, or whatever, you can take us with you right to the beach.
[00:01:17] We'll sit there with you on Sunday mornings.
[00:01:20] You can join with us, participate.
[00:01:22] You know, you got your family there at the Airbnb.
[00:01:25] Just get them up early on Sunday morning and worship with us, or 11 o'clock, you know, sleep in a little bit, whatever you wanna do.
[00:01:31] It's great.
[00:01:31] Give it up for your campus pastors, Pastor Aaron, Pastor Stephanie.
[00:01:34] You gotta stand up.
[00:01:37] Make sure you meet them.
[00:01:38] Got great campus pastors.
[00:01:39] Best ones I've met today, just wanted to say.
[00:01:41] Fantastic, fantastic.
[00:01:44] If I haven't met you, my name is Troy.
[00:01:45] My wife and I are the senior pastors.
[00:01:47] My wife is preaching at the Lake Norman campus, and we have Pastor Olin at our South End campus today.
[00:01:53] and I am with you.
[00:01:54] It's been a while, Central.
[00:01:56] Missed you from the bottom of my heart.
[00:01:59] We're in a series called Hot Seat.
[00:02:01] We took this idea that I do on Fridays on social media and answer questions, tough questions that people send in and we wanted to answer questions throughout the summer that you're asking today.
[00:02:13] I wanna answer the question, what is the point of my pain?
[00:02:18] What is the point of my pain?
[00:02:20] I'd encourage you to take some notes, write some things down.
[00:02:23] C.S.
[00:02:23] Lewis says this, it says, I want to spend some time talking about
[00:02:40] Pain.
[00:02:40] Everybody say pain.
[00:02:41] The purpose of pain.
[00:02:42] I got a picture.
[00:02:43] Five months ago, I had surgery.
[00:02:47] I had rotator cuff surgery on my shoulder.
[00:02:50] This is me laying on my couch.
[00:02:51] I had to spend like a month on the couch downstairs, kind of tilted up, leaning forward.
[00:02:57] Terrible to sleep, in a lot of pain.
[00:02:59] I'd spent about five or six years struggling with shoulder problems, and I'm so hard-headed.
[00:03:04] My wife says, you need to go get it checked out.
[00:03:06] I'm like, no, just power through it.
[00:03:08] Come on, guys, help me out.
[00:03:11] Pain, just rub some dirt on it, you know, whatever you need to do.
[00:03:14] Can you take a picture down now?
[00:03:15] It makes me have hot flashes.
[00:03:18] And so I decided finally, because I try to keep up with all the young guns and whoop them most of the time, but I started to lose.
[00:03:28] And I went and got an MRI.
[00:03:30] Come to find out I had three tears in my shoulder.
[00:03:34] I had two on the back and then one really bad rupture on the top of my shoulder.
[00:03:39] And I was still doing all kinds of crazy stuff, pull-ups and push-ups and lifting weights and doing all this stupid stuff that we do as men.
[00:03:46] We do stupid stuff.
[00:03:48] And so ended up going in and having surgery.
[00:03:51] And it was the most, the pain was really bad before the surgery, but the surgery,
[00:03:57] was one of the most painful surgeries I've ever had.
[00:03:59] Anybody ever had rotator cuff surgery?
[00:04:01] It hurts bad, like really, really bad.
[00:04:04] And Pastor Aaron was kind enough to let me know, like, here's what you need to watch out for.
[00:04:09] Here's what you need to do.
[00:04:10] And what they do when you have the surgery is they do a pain blocker, like a nerve block, and it just blocks all the pain out, but it only lasts for about 24 hours.
[00:04:20] And so Pastor Aaron said, listen, Troy, you need to make sure
[00:04:27] that you get ahead of the pain.
[00:04:30] He said, I promise you, you're not gonna feel anything when they get that, it's true, when they do that nerve blocker, you don't feel anything at all.
[00:04:39] It was so awesome, no pain, nothing.
[00:04:41] But then about 18 hours in, it was about two o'clock in the morning, it woke me up.
[00:04:47] And it was like, it was screaming at me.
[00:04:51] It hurts so bad.
[00:04:52] And Aaron said, you need to make sure you start taking medicine ahead of time.
[00:04:55] So I asked my wife.
[00:04:57] So I was kinda out of it when I came out of the surgery.
[00:05:00] And my wife, my beautiful bride, was supposed to be paying attention to the doctor.
[00:05:05] and the nurses about all the instructions of what needed to be done and take this medication and everything.
[00:05:12] I said, honey, what do I need?
[00:05:13] I'm like crying, it hurts so bad, Ethan.
[00:05:15] I mean, my arm is just in so much pain.
[00:05:18] I said, what do I need to do?
[00:05:19] She goes, take this.
[00:05:20] And I took it, nothing happened.
[00:05:23] Come to find out, I was only taking half of what I was supposed to do because she messed up.
[00:05:31] She did not listen.
[00:05:33] And
[00:05:35] I mean, this is 2 o'clock in the morning.
[00:05:38] I'm on the phone trying to get in touch with my doctor.
[00:05:41] Like, what am I supposed to do?
[00:05:42] I couldn't breathe.
[00:05:44] Finally, they told me, oh yeah, you can take this and you can take this other medication.
[00:05:49] So every two hours, you can take this.
[00:05:51] My wife never told me anything like that.
[00:05:52] I don't know if she was just paying me back for all the years of pain that I caused her.
[00:05:59] There's purpose in pain.
[00:06:00] Nobody likes pain.
[00:06:01] We run from it.
[00:06:02] We try to avoid it.
[00:06:03] We medicate it.
[00:06:04] or we don't medicate it enough.
[00:06:06] Whatever works.
[00:06:07] There's people pain.
[00:06:08] I think people pain's probably the worst pain.
[00:06:10] People that betray you, hurt you, stab you in the back.
[00:06:12] They say they love you.
[00:06:14] and then they destroy you.
[00:06:15] Financial pain, we go through bankruptcy, loss of job, demotion, marking conditions.
[00:06:20] We go through emotional pain, depression, anxiety, loss of a family member or we go through family pain.
[00:06:26] We go through marital issues, divorce or our kids go off the rails.
[00:06:30] No matter how much we don't like pain.
[00:06:34] But here's my thesis for today.
[00:06:36] The greatest lessons in life are almost always taught in the classroom of pain.
[00:06:44] The greatest lessons in life are almost always taught in the classroom of pain.
[00:06:50] It's in our darkest hours that we often, it's the place where we learn the most.
[00:06:57] We learn about our lives, we learn about people, we learn about ourselves, and mostly we learn about God.
[00:07:05] Dr. Sam Chan, who is one of my mentors and on our board for a long time, taught me, and he wrote a book about pain called Leadership Pain, and he taught us that we only grow to the level or the threshold of our pain.
[00:07:23] Meaning that no matter where you are in life, we're so adverse to pain, we wanna avoid pain.
[00:07:31] When things start to hurt, we start to pull away.
[00:07:35] It happens in business.
[00:07:37] If you're a business owner, entrepreneur, you own your business, your business is only gonna grow to the threshold of your pain.
[00:07:44] When it comes to ministry, it's the same thing.
[00:07:46] Your ministry, this church only grows to the level of my pain.
[00:07:52] So my ability to overcome pain, and it hurts to grow.
[00:07:55] He gave me this equation that growth equals change, change equals loss, loss equals pain, so growth equals pain.
[00:08:07] If you wanna grow, if you wanna mature, you're gonna go through pain.
[00:08:13] It's going to be a challenge.
[00:08:14] You're going to want to avoid it.
[00:08:16] But God teaches us something in the pain.
[00:08:19] Biblically, we can learn so many things about people.
[00:08:22] And the Bible is given to us as lessons we can learn.
[00:08:25] And of course, David went through pain.
[00:08:27] Joshua went through pain.
[00:08:29] Jeremiah went through pain.
[00:08:31] Many of the disciples went through pain.
[00:08:33] But of course, the person who went through the most pain was Jesus.
[00:08:39] He went through excruciating pain when he was beaten with what was called a cat of nine tails.
[00:08:47] It was a whip with pieces of bone and stone on the end.
[00:08:52] He was beaten with rods.
[00:08:55] He was crucified.
[00:08:56] One of the most horrible deaths anybody could ever imagine.
[00:09:00] But did you know that that really wasn't the greatest pain that he went through?
[00:09:05] Now when he was on that cross and he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:09:10] When God turned his back on his son, because Jesus didn't just take our sin, he didn't just cover our sin, he became our sin, your sin, my sin, all of humanity's sin, he became that sin, and as a result, God had to forsake his own son so that you and I would never be forsaken.
[00:09:34] Isn't that amazing?
[00:09:35] Aren't you thankful?
[00:09:37] I don't know about you, but I'd give God a big hand clap for the fact that you don't have to go through that kind of pain.
[00:09:45] Today we're gonna go on a journey and answer some questions about pain, and we're gonna learn from Paul who went through a lot of pain.
[00:09:49] In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, we're gonna just work through this passage, verses seven through 10, and learn some things
[00:09:56] on the purpose of pain.
[00:09:58] Paul has been given this amazing revelation, and then he goes through challenges.
[00:10:04] And it says, and lest I should, this is verse seven, it says, lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh.
[00:10:14] Everybody say pain, say it again, say pain.
[00:10:16] Look at your neighbor, say it hurts.
[00:10:18] It hurts.
[00:10:19] A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
[00:10:26] Concerning this thing, this pain, I pleaded, I prayed with the Lord, to the Lord, three times that it might depart from me.
[00:10:34] And he said, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:10:38] Would you say that with me?
[00:10:39] Say my grace.
[00:10:41] is sufficient for you.
[00:10:42] One more time, say, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:10:46] And he says, my strength, this is God talking to Paul, my strength is made perfect in your weakness.
[00:10:53] Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my pain.
[00:10:59] What?
[00:10:59] Hold on a second.
[00:11:00] that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
[00:11:04] I think Paul knows something.
[00:11:05] Verse 10, therefore, I take pleasure.
[00:11:08] Okay, so he says, first of all, I'm gonna boast in my pain.
[00:11:11] And then he says, I'm gonna take pleasure in infirmities.
[00:11:14] I think he took a note out of James where James says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials and tribulations.
[00:11:22] I take pleasure in my pain and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake.
[00:11:29] For when I am weak, when I go through stuff, then I am strong.
[00:11:36] Paul can teach us something.
[00:11:38] Let's answer this first question, where does pain come from?
[00:11:41] He says, a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet me.
[00:11:46] Let me just tell you, theologically, God never causes pain.
[00:11:53] Let me say that again.
[00:11:54] It's quiet in this Catholic church.
[00:11:59] God never causes pain.
[00:12:02] He is not the author of pain.
[00:12:04] Can I get an amen?
[00:12:07] That's bad theology.
[00:12:09] Well, you know, God put this cancer on me to teach me something.
[00:12:11] No, he didn't.
[00:12:13] God is not the author of cancer.
[00:12:14] Oh, you know, I'm going through these heart problems because he's trying to teach me something.
[00:12:18] Now, God can teach you something in anything, and he will teach you something in the pain, but he's not the one that caused the pain.
[00:12:26] Well, you know, this diabetes he put on, you know, you can only believe that in church.
[00:12:30] And sadly, people live their entire lives as Christian thinking that a good father wants to hurt them.
[00:12:37] God does not want to hurt you.
[00:12:39] He wants to bless you.
[00:12:41] You are blessed because of what Jesus did.
[00:12:43] No, he hurt Jesus.
[00:12:45] Jesus was on the cross so we wouldn't have to go there.
[00:12:48] Jesus went to hell so we wouldn't have to go there.
[00:12:50] Are you with me?
[00:12:52] So just get that out of your head.
[00:12:53] God does not hurt you.
[00:12:56] That is bad theology.
[00:12:59] Paul tells us it's a messenger of Satan.
[00:13:02] Satan wants to hurt you.
[00:13:04] Satan is the author of pain.
[00:13:06] He used to be an angel of light.
[00:13:08] He used to be one of the three archangels, Lucifer, Gabriel, and Michael.
[00:13:12] An angel's job were to bring a message from God.
[00:13:17] that was their job the word angel means is the Greek is the Hebrew word malak it means messenger he used to be a messenger or angel of light a messenger of God's promises but now he's an angel of pain he's a he's a messenger of pain he wants to hurt you he wants to destroy you and be and because he hurts he wants to hurt because hurt people hurt people
[00:13:41] How does he hurt us?
[00:13:42] Revelation 12, verse 10, he says, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.
[00:13:53] This is at the end when Jesus comes back and God deals with Satan.
[00:13:58] He says, and Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down.
[00:14:10] In other words, see, his main way is through people and for us to feel internally that we are living in accusation.
[00:14:20] He wants to betray you.
[00:14:21] John 10, 10 says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.
[00:14:27] He wants to rob you of your dreams.
[00:14:28] He wants to rob you of your destiny.
[00:14:30] He wants to rob you of your future.
[00:14:31] He wants to do everything he can to cause pain in your life, pain in your family, pain with your kids.
[00:14:38] That's why it's so important to have a relationship with God so that you can fight the enemy with the word of God.
[00:14:43] You can fight the enemy with the power that's in the name of Jesus.
[00:14:47] You have authority over pain.
[00:14:51] but there's purpose in it.
[00:14:53] Paul says a thorn in the flesh, a thorn, a little, it's not the big stuff.
[00:14:59] We can identify the big stuff.
[00:15:01] It's the little things.
[00:15:03] It's the nagging things.
[00:15:04] The splinters that are so annoying.
[00:15:07] The other day, July 4th, we had a bunch of friends over and my daughter had gotten married at my house.
[00:15:13] And I remember that there was a bottle in the trash cans, you know, that fell over and bust in the garage.
[00:15:20] How many know, no matter how much you sweep, you never can get all the glass up?
[00:15:25] And so in the summertime, I'm a no shoes kind of person.
[00:15:29] I just don't wear shoes.
[00:15:30] I don't want cheap tenderfoot.
[00:15:31] I wanna be able to walk anywhere I can.
[00:15:33] So I walk everywhere with bare feet.
[00:15:35] You know, at home, you know.
[00:15:36] And so I'm walking through the garage, and all of a sudden, I step right on the glass.
[00:15:41] I can tell that something went in my foot.
[00:15:44] But it wasn't until I took the next step that I realized, oh my gosh.
[00:15:49] And that's the thorn that the enemy does.
[00:15:53] It's every step we take, we can feel it.
[00:15:55] So man, I'm like, oh my gosh.
[00:15:57] And I went and looked.
[00:15:59] And I can't see that well anyway.
[00:16:01] And I wear one contact and one eye for far away and no contact so I can see close.
[00:16:06] So I'm a little jacked up.
[00:16:10] And so I go in the bathroom, you know, and I'm trying to dig that thing out.
[00:16:13] I can't see it.
[00:16:14] It was so annoying.
[00:16:16] It's those little pains, those little thorns, those little things that bother us.
[00:16:23] The other day, I think this was last Saturday, I was at, you know, Penny and I were getting ready to go to bed.
[00:16:28] I go to bed pretty early at 9.30, quarter to 10, especially on Saturdays.
[00:16:33] You know, so we're laying in the bed together, and I'm thinking, you know, I might get a little frisky tonight.
[00:16:38] I'm married.
[00:16:40] Don't get nervous.
[00:16:42] If you're married, come on, married people, help me out here.
[00:16:47] Single people, don't listen to this.
[00:16:48] You just scroll for a minute.
[00:16:54] I'm thinking, you know, hey, tonight's the night.
[00:16:56] You know, it's day before church.
[00:16:58] Help me preach.
[00:17:01] And all of a sudden, true story.
[00:17:02] This is true.
[00:17:04] I'm not preaching right now.
[00:17:05] This is true.
[00:17:12] Mosquito is in my bedroom.
[00:17:16] I couldn't see it.
[00:17:18] Just little mosquito.
[00:17:19] Destroyed my plans.
[00:17:24] I'm like, got distracted.
[00:17:29] We're trying to find the mosquito.
[00:17:30] Dang it.
[00:17:35] It's the little things.
[00:17:37] It's those little pains.
[00:17:40] What's your thorn in the flesh?
[00:17:43] What's that little thing that the enemy is using to cause you pain?
[00:17:47] The good news, God doesn't cause you pain.
[00:17:50] He is your healer.
[00:17:52] His grace is, come on, say it with me, sufficient.
[00:17:56] One more time, come on, say it with me.
[00:17:58] His grace is sufficient.
[00:18:00] One more time, His grace is sufficient.
[00:18:03] So who's the cause?
[00:18:04] Satan.
[00:18:05] What's the target?
[00:18:07] What Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, it says, each time, he said, my grace is all you need.
[00:18:13] My power works best in weakness.
[00:18:17] You know what he targets?
[00:18:18] Your weakness.
[00:18:20] We all have them.
[00:18:21] We all have that little place, that blind spot.
[00:18:26] The devil doesn't target your strengths.
[00:18:29] He's not going after the areas that you have discipline in.
[00:18:33] When I became a Christian, I used to be an alcoholic.
[00:18:35] I was a big-time drinker, drugs, all that stuff.
[00:18:38] And when I got saved, God delivered me from everything.
[00:18:40] It was amazing.
[00:18:42] That doesn't happen to everybody.
[00:18:43] It happened to me.
[00:18:44] I mean, literally, I got saved, 30-day process, November of 1990.
[00:18:48] By the end of the 30 days, I didn't ever wanna drink again.
[00:18:52] And I haven't, I don't drink.
[00:18:53] I've never drank since.
[00:18:56] And so, it's awesome.
[00:18:59] Here's the deal.
[00:19:00] I'm not tempted to drink.
[00:19:02] Like, when I ride by bars, I'm gonna go, man, I really wanna go in there.
[00:19:05] Not a chance.
[00:19:07] Some of my friends, people that I know, I play golf with, they drink.
[00:19:11] They say, does it bother you that I drink?
[00:19:13] Because they know my story.
[00:19:14] I'm like, not at all.
[00:19:15] Because I'm strong in that area.
[00:19:18] Now, I have weaknesses.
[00:19:20] I have blind spots.
[00:19:22] And how do I know those blind spots?
[00:19:25] The people that I surround myself with.
[00:19:28] My friends.
[00:19:30] You know, it's very important who you hang out with.
[00:19:33] Extremely important.
[00:19:35] Listen to Hebrews chapter 12.
[00:19:36] Listen to this verse.
[00:19:38] It says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
[00:19:54] You know, the word surrounded there literally means echo, echo, echo.
[00:20:01] Let me ask you something.
[00:20:03] What are the people echoing around you?
[00:20:05] Are they saying what you want to hear or what you need to hear?
[00:20:12] Because it's extremely important.
[00:20:13] If you want people, if you wanna know what those weaknesses are, you need to surround yourself with the right echo, echo.
[00:20:20] You need to surround with the right cloud of witnesses, the people in your life that will tell you the thing that you need to hear, not just what you wanna hear.
[00:20:33] I've said this for years that you need to have somebody in your life that can tell you no and you listen.
[00:20:38] That you trust.
[00:20:39] You have to give them permission to do that, by the way.
[00:20:42] It just doesn't come by accident.
[00:20:43] It takes time.
[00:20:45] You have to develop those relationships.
[00:20:47] That's why we have life groups.
[00:20:48] That's why we have small groups.
[00:20:51] Look, you can't get to know somebody in a deep way in an hour and 15 minutes on a Sunday morning.
[00:20:57] I'm sorry, you just can't do it.
[00:20:58] You have to invest in those relationships.
[00:21:01] I know what you're thinking.
[00:21:02] I'm not going to some life group.
[00:21:03] There's a bunch of weird people there.
[00:21:07] Hey, there's weird people everywhere.
[00:21:09] There's weird people here today.
[00:21:11] Don't look at them.
[00:21:12] Just ignore them.
[00:21:15] There's weird people at your work, right?
[00:21:18] But you still go back every day.
[00:21:21] You go back.
[00:21:22] There's weird people at the grocery.
[00:21:24] I know people shop on Sundays.
[00:21:26] Thank God for Instacart.
[00:21:28] Thank God for Walmart delivery, because there's crazy people at Walmart.
[00:21:32] Now they deliver.
[00:21:33] You don't have to deal with them.
[00:21:35] People running down the aisles with their clothes off.
[00:21:37] I don't know.
[00:21:38] I mean, it's crazy at Walmart.
[00:21:40] It's nuts.
[00:21:41] Weird people.
[00:21:42] That's why it starts with a W. It's weird.
[00:21:45] Should have been Weird Mart instead of Walmart.
[00:21:50] You know, you have to go through the pain of the wrong people
[00:21:57] in order to recognize the right people, the right echo.
[00:22:02] You need life groups.
[00:22:03] Look, the first one you go to might not work out.
[00:22:05] That's okay.
[00:22:07] Just go to another one.
[00:22:08] Until you find that group of people, those few people that you can do life with that will help you grow and identify your blind spot.
[00:22:19] You can't do it by yourself.
[00:22:20] You don't have the capability to see in that blind spot, so you need somebody.
[00:22:25] Second thing he targets,
[00:22:27] He targets our weakness.
[00:22:28] He targets our pride.
[00:22:29] 2 Corinthians 12, verse seven says, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God.
[00:22:36] See, Paul had gotten this picture of heaven.
[00:22:39] He called it the third heaven.
[00:22:41] and he said, look, I don't wanna become conceited.
[00:22:47] He said, so to keep me from being proud.
[00:22:50] One translation says conceited.
[00:22:52] One translation says to keep me from having a big head.
[00:22:54] One translation says I don't wanna get puffed up.
[00:22:57] See, we all have some pride in some areas.
[00:23:00] Our independence can lead us into serious pain.
[00:23:04] I mean, let's be honest.
[00:23:05] We'd all still be in the garden right now if it wasn't for pride.
[00:23:09] We'd still be walking with God every single day, you know, in this perfect environment if it wasn't for Adam and Eve who wanted to be independent from God, who ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then put us in this whole situation.
[00:23:24] Mankind, pride is dangerous.
[00:23:29] I don't need anybody.
[00:23:30] I don't need any help.
[00:23:33] I know all the answers.
[00:23:34] I've got this.
[00:23:35] I can do it all by myself.
[00:23:37] It's dangerous.
[00:23:38] Now I know nobody would say, I don't need God, but sometimes our life demonstrates it.
[00:23:46] Sometimes our behavior says, I don't need God.
[00:23:50] Muhammad Ali was getting on the airplane one time and the flight attendant asked him to put on a seatbelt.
[00:23:54] Ali says, Superman don't need no seatbelt.
[00:23:57] The flight attendant replies, Superman don't need no airplane either.
[00:24:04] Hey listen, pride is sneaky.
[00:24:07] Pride will sneak in.
[00:24:08] The Bible says pride comes before a fall.
[00:24:11] See, it's the fall that causes us to get humble, real quick.
[00:24:15] I wish we could fall first and then we wouldn't have to deal with it, but the truth is is that that is, pride, that's the sneakiness of pride.
[00:24:25] Our humanity starts to take over and we want to be God in our lives.
[00:24:32] James 4, verse six, it says, God opposes the proud
[00:24:36] but gives grace to the humble.
[00:24:38] That word oppose is very similar to the word repent.
[00:24:43] Listen, repent is not just saying I'm sorry and then living the same way.
[00:24:47] Repentance actually means I'm going in this direction and I turn 180 degrees in the other direction and go move away.
[00:24:56] That's what repentance, repent to turn
[00:24:59] to pent, to move away.
[00:25:01] This word oppose is very similar, meaning that when pride arises, God, listen, opposes the proud.
[00:25:11] He resists the proud.
[00:25:13] He turns in another direction from the proud.
[00:25:17] This is what caused Lucifer to get kicked out of heaven is pride.
[00:25:22] I wanna make sure that I check that because the enemy can use that to cause me pain.
[00:25:29] Look, we all go through pain.
[00:25:30] Pain's a part of life.
[00:25:31] Sometimes we look at other people and think, you know, if I had their life, then I wouldn't be going through this pain.
[00:25:39] We look at social media, and social media is so fake.
[00:25:43] There's filters.
[00:25:44] They don't look that good.
[00:25:47] I've seen them in person.
[00:25:48] They don't.
[00:25:50] They really don't.
[00:25:51] And their lives are not that good because nobody's gonna post their pain.
[00:25:59] And so everybody goes through pain.
[00:26:00] Listen to Paul.
[00:26:02] You know, Paul shows us the stuff that he went through in 2 Corinthians 11, his resume of pain.
[00:26:10] Verse 24, it says, From the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one.
[00:26:17] Let me just put this in context for you.
[00:26:19] When Jesus was whipped, he was whipped 39 times.
[00:26:24] Roman, this,
[00:26:28] This brutality was, if you got whipped 40 times, that was a death sentence.
[00:26:34] So one less is not death.
[00:26:36] Paul was beat five times like that.
[00:26:41] Can you imagine what his back looked like?
[00:26:44] It says three times I was beaten with rods.
[00:26:47] Once I was stoned.
[00:26:48] Some of you are thinking, at least he got relief.
[00:26:50] That's not what he's talking about.
[00:26:53] Aaron, that's not what he's talking about.
[00:26:57] Some of y'all get that later when you're at Jason's Deli, okay?
[00:27:00] You'll figure that out.
[00:27:01] Did he just really say that in church?
[00:27:03] Absolutely.
[00:27:05] Three times I was shipwrecked.
[00:27:08] A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren,
[00:27:24] In weariness and toil and sleeplessness often, In hunger and thirst and fastings often,
[00:27:31] and Cold and Nakedness.
[00:27:33] Paul has been through some pain.
[00:27:35] Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily?
[00:27:38] My deep concern for all the churches.
[00:27:40] Who is weak?
[00:27:41] Who hadn't been through?
[00:27:42] I am not weak.
[00:27:45] Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation?
[00:27:47] Paul understands that there's a point to this pain.
[00:27:52] And what is that purpose?
[00:27:53] What is that purpose of the pain?
[00:27:55] What's the point of my pain?
[00:27:57] Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord
[00:27:59] Three times, Lord, please take it away.
[00:28:01] And I know we've all prayed that before.
[00:28:04] No matter what that pain is, it hurts so bad.
[00:28:08] God, take it away.
[00:28:10] God, take it away.
[00:28:12] God, take it away.
[00:28:13] And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:28:20] My grace is, what's the point of pain?
[00:28:24] Paul would have never experienced this kind of grace
[00:28:29] had God removed the pain.
[00:28:33] He would have never experienced this kind of grace.
[00:28:36] In Matthew chapter 14, Jesus feeds 5,000 plus women and children, okay?
[00:28:48] Probably 20, 25,000 people he fed with five loaves and two fish.
[00:28:58] His disciples watched the whole miracle.
[00:28:59] It's amazing.
[00:29:00] They even take Tupperware home full of fish and loaves.
[00:29:09] Jesus tells his disciples, hey listen, I need you guys to go to the other side.
[00:29:15] He sends them on a mission.
[00:29:17] He gives them a mission.
[00:29:21] He goes up on the mountain to pray.
[00:29:22] He dismisses the crowd and then he goes up on the mountain to pray.
[00:29:26] and His disciples are on their way, they're fulfilling their mission and a storm hits.
[00:29:33] Now these are fishermen, okay?
[00:29:36] They understand the sea, they've been on the sea their entire lives.
[00:29:39] They know storms, they know them very well.
[00:29:42] But the Bible's very clear that this is a different storm.
[00:29:45] This is a different pain.
[00:29:47] This is something they've never experienced before.
[00:29:50] This hurt a lot, like a lot.
[00:29:53] And they're in the middle of the sea
[00:29:56] and they don't know what to do.
[00:29:57] And the storm is beating on them and beating on them and beating on them.
[00:30:02] And Jesus at three o'clock in the morning, the Bible says, he starts walking on the water towards them to get to the other side.
[00:30:11] He wants to meet them in their mission.
[00:30:14] And he walks right by them.
[00:30:18] And here's what's amazing.
[00:30:21] These 12 guys, most of which are fishermen,
[00:30:24] We're so caught up in the storm that they don't even recognize that their Savior's walking right beside them.
[00:30:36] Listen, they have sat with Him for hours and hours and hours as He taught them.
[00:30:44] They've watched Him deal with the authority of the Pharisees.
[00:30:49] Man, they saw Him open blind eyes.
[00:30:53] They watched Jesus raise somebody from the dead.
[00:31:00] I mean, you can imagine how many hours they were with him.
[00:31:04] They saw him feed 25,000 people.
[00:31:11] But they're in the storm, they're in some pain, listen, and they don't even recognize Jesus.
[00:31:19] Could it be that the pain you're dealing with right now, could it be
[00:31:24] that God wants to show you himself like he's never shown you.
[00:31:29] Because they knew him as a healer, right?
[00:31:33] They knew him as a teacher.
[00:31:36] They knew him as a provider.
[00:31:39] But they had never seen Jesus walk on water before.
[00:31:43] Could it be the storm you're in right now, the pain that you're dealing with right now, is so that Jesus can reveal Himself to you in a way He's never shown Himself to you?
[00:31:54] See, I believe that's the point of pain.
[00:31:57] What's the point of pain?
[00:31:59] So that I can encounter Jesus in a way I've never encountered Him before.
[00:32:06] What if Jesus wants to
[00:32:08] Be to you something you've never had before in your entire life.
[00:32:12] Why don't you stand with me today?
[00:32:13] I wanna pray for you before we go home and just have an opportunity to meet Jesus.
[00:32:21] Because I believe some of you, you're hurting today.
[00:32:23] But the word of the Lord for you is my grace is sufficient.
[00:32:31] My grace is sufficient.
[00:32:35] I know you've prayed, God, remove this physical pain.
[00:32:38] God says, my grace is sufficient.
[00:32:41] Please, God, take, I remember, man, when I was going through panic attacks, God, I don't wanna have anxiety.
[00:32:47] I don't wanna have another panic attack.
[00:32:49] I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
[00:32:51] God said, my grace is sufficient for you.
[00:32:53] And I met God in a way that I'd never met him before.
[00:32:57] Never met Him before like He introduced Himself.
[00:33:01] What if God wants to introduce Himself in a way to you?
[00:33:05] You've never met Him before.
[00:33:06] You've been in church your whole life.
[00:33:08] You've seen Him do miracles.
[00:33:10] You've seen Him provide for you.
[00:33:12] You've seen Him take care of your bills, heal your friends.
[00:33:15] I want to open up this altar today I want to open if you're dealing with pain and you want to meet Jesus he wants to touch you he's walking right by your boat if you'll just open your no it's not a ghost
[00:33:38] He's not a ghost.
[00:33:39] He's somebody who wants to touch your life and heal you because His grace is sufficient.
[00:33:45] Are you going through family pain?
[00:33:46] Get out of your seat and come to this altar today.
[00:33:49] Are you going through emotional pain?
[00:33:50] Get out of your seat and come to this altar.
[00:33:52] Are you going through marriage pain today?
[00:33:54] Get out of your seat and come to this altar.
[00:33:56] Are you going through physical pain today?
[00:33:58] Get out of your seat.
[00:33:59] Come to this altar.
[00:34:00] Are you dealing with depression, anxiety?

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
I don't know.
[00:34:04] Whatever pain, whatever

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
The storm you're in today, get out of your seat, come to this altar, and as you come, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, as you come, just lift your hands and begin to worship God.
[00:34:15] Begin to worship God.

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
He's gonna touch you, He's gonna reveal Himself to you in a way you've never experienced.
[00:34:23] He wants to have an encounter with you.
[00:34:25] Are you hungry to see Him?
[00:34:27] Come on, open your spiritual eyes.
[00:34:44] And in the middle of this pain, God wants to touch you.
[00:34:45] He wants you to experience a way you've never experienced it before.
[00:34:47] Let Him touch you.
[00:34:47] Let Him touch you right now.
[00:34:48] Just close your eyes and get along with God right now.
[00:34:49] Our leaders are gonna come and pray for you.

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Reconciliation, Circumcision

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
God, I thank you you're the healer.
[00:36:34] You're our healer.
[00:36:36] You're our deliverer.
[00:36:39] Jesus, I thank you for revealing yourself to people in this room today like you've never before.
[00:36:49] Thank you that your grace is sufficient.
[00:36:54] Your grace is sufficient.
[00:37:00] Your grace is sufficient.
[00:37:05] Touch people today, Lord.
[00:37:07] Touch people today.
[00:37:08] In the name of Jesus.
[00:37:10] In the name of Jesus, touch people today.
[00:37:16] Yes, Lord.
[00:37:18] There's His presence right there.
[00:37:20] There's His presence.
[00:37:26] Just don't look at the pain right now.
[00:37:28] Look at the one who's walking by your boat, walking on the water.
[00:37:33] Don't let the winds, the waves, all the stuff, all the hurt, the accusation, the betrayal.
[00:37:44] Thank you for your presence.
[00:37:49] There's power in your name, Lord.
[00:37:50] There's power in your name.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Thank you, Jesus.
[00:37:56] Thank you, Jesus.

[00:38:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
I'm just gonna, here's what I'm gonna do.
[00:38:08] The worship team is just gonna continue to lead.
[00:38:12] I want you to stay right here as long as you want.
[00:38:14] I'm gonna dismiss the rest of the people if you wanna leave.
[00:38:17] If you wanna stay and just continue to worship God, we're just gonna stay in the presence of God.
[00:38:21] I don't wanna stop, although I know service is technically over.
[00:38:27] I wanna just continue to let God minister to people.
[00:38:30] Don't feel like you need to rush off.
[00:38:31] If you wanna stay and worship, if you wanna come to the altar and pray, I think God wants to continue to do some work.
[00:38:38] In people's lives, our worship team's gonna stay up here for a little bit longer, and we're just gonna get closer to God.
[00:38:44] We're just gonna keep pushing into Him.
[00:38:48] Otherwise, have a wonderful week.
[00:38:51] We love you.
[00:38:52] And let's just have an encounter with God today.
[00:38:58] Thank you, Jesus.

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
We love you, Lord.
[00:39:07] Let us pray.
[00:39:54] Spirit lead me where my trust is
[00:40:16] Let us pray.
[00:41:20] The treasure is in the blood
[00:42:08] In the presence of myself
[00:43:24] Spirit Spirit Spirit Spirit Spirit
[00:44:07] of the Holy Spirit.
[00:44:36] The curse abounds in deepest forms Your sovereign hand will be my guide My feet may fail and fear surrounds me
[00:45:05] I will never fail and you won't stop now I will call upon the name of the Lord I keep my eyes above the waves when oceans rise
[00:45:33] Let us pray.
[00:46:10] My trust is without borders Let me walk upon the waters Wherever you would call me Take me deeper than my feet can ever wander My faith will be raised stronger In the presence of my Savior God is with me
[00:46:43] We wait, we wait, we wait, we wait, we wait
[00:49:25] You can do miracles You will do what You say Cause You're the same God now Come on people Your Spirit Your Spirit's great
[00:49:59] You still do me praise
[00:51:30] Just a mention makes Giants falling strong And there is, there is Him That's the power that I'll play It's the Savior of the grave There's no power like the mighty name of Jesus There's no power like
[00:51:58] In the mighty name of Jesus There's no power like the mighty name of Jesus