God Is In Control Of My Pain

Good morning, Cross Church. It is great to see you all today. Let's stand to our feet to worship the Lord this morning. The battle is not our own. It belongs to the Lord. Let's worship Him today. Come on. When all I see is the battle, you see my victory. Yeah. When all I see is a mountain, you see a mountain move. And as I walk through the shadow, your love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear now, for I am safe. Come on, lift this up this morning. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my head lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. It belongs to you. And if you are for me, who can be against me? No one. For Jesus, there's nothing impossible. Oh, we sing. Come on. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty. Thank you, God. When all I see is the cross, God, you see the empty town. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my head lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God.

Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadows, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees, with my head lifted high. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. And every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Oh God, the battle belongs to you. Belongs to you. Yes. Come on, we sing it in faith today. Well, good morning, everybody. Great to have all of you here in this room. For everybody watching at all the campuses, welcome to you. Glad to have you be a part of what God is doing here at Cross Church today. If you're brand new to our church, welcome. You have not entered into a perfect church by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like we're really nice people. What do y'all think? I feel like we're nice people who, man, are following Jesus with our lives, and so we're just thrilled that you're here at this campus. I'll be out in the lobby after the service.

Would love to say hey to you and to your family. As you heard, next family video today is a One Church Sunday where we are all linking up by video for the sermon portion of the service, which means Highway 62, Springdale, and Pinnacle Hills. You are all getting this right now via video, and we welcome all of you here today. Let me explain what these days are all about. Today is not about me, and really, it is about you as so much as we would say that God wants to speak to your heart today, but really these days are about us, and this is a day where I'm gonna ask you to look beyond the campus that you attend, and let's think about the whole of our church and the overarching story of what God is doing here at Cross Church, and so I wanna give you a couple good news-like things. Y'all good for good news? I know we're a couple weeks past Easter. Let me tell you some of the things you may not have heard in the overall celebration that I think are church-wide things that are worth us celebrating together. At our Springdale campus, for those of you at Springdale, we had our largest ever Espanol service at the Springdale campus. If you count those that were in the room plus all their kids and preschoolers, listen to this, we had over 1,400 people

at our Espanol service. Let's give God praise for that. I love how God is using Pastor Pablo down at Springdale, and let's talk about Farmington and Highway 62. Obviously, those of us in the room at Fayetteville, we have experienced the most loss with sending the majority of people from this campus to that campus, and we started on February 1st in Farmington High School. You just saw the update of the buildings almost done that we will move into shortly, but then Easter weekend was April 4th and 5th, so about two months into the life of that campus. Look at what God did. We had over 1,600 people show up for Easter services, so let's praise the Lord on that as well. Just an incredible movement of the Lord. Just to be very frank with you, we believe that the Lord is calling us to start additional campuses. It's not been a secret. We've been very open with you about that. In fact, we're working pretty diligently behind the scenes on some exciting things that hopefully will roll out at the right time related to future campuses, but we are trying to move into a mode now, into a model that we can have not only when we're four campuses, but when we're five, six, or seven, whatever the Lord may lead us to do,

and so this is why we're doing some of the preaching in this manner so we all can stay together, and then our teaching pastors who we all know and love are going to continue to preach and be a part of the mix as well, but here's one thing that I do know, all right, and I think that you're with me on this, but this is where we really are as a church leadership is we do not wanna be four separate churches. Like in any stretch of the imagination, we desire to be one church, and so this is why we're doing a day like today, so wherever you're at, here's what we're gonna do. I believe God wants to speak to you today. Do you believe that? And so I want you to grab your Bible. Genesis chapter 39 is where we're gonna be together, and again, we started a series last week called God Meant It For Good out of the book of Genesis. We have been covering the book of Genesis really for the majority of this calendar year. Now we get to the life of Joseph, which will carry us all the way to the end of the book. This dude's life is like one long picture of the thought that what Satan intended for evil, God intended for good. Now I wanna talk to you about your life today, and here's what we're gonna talk about. Today, I wanna talk to you about pain. How's that for a nice, light,

warm and fuzzy sermon for you, all right? We're gonna talk about pain in your life. There is something about pain that's just hard. All of us deal with it, and pain is confusing at times. It can be disorienting. You have thoughts of, man, where is the Lord right now? Why is God doing this? Why is God allowing this? And before you know it, you really find yourself at a dark, dark place, and so there's emotional pain like that. There's also physical pain. Like if I were to ask you, what's the worst physical pain you've ever been through, how would you answer that? Some of you are answering out loud, that's great. Some of you may say, oh, I had an injury, and I had to have surgery, and it was horrible, or maybe you were in a car accident at some point, and it caused you, you broke a rib or something. I had a woman stop me in the lobby. She said, can I give you one more example? How about labor? And I was like, okay, that's a good one. This woman told me, I'm not joking, she was in labor for 70 hours. 70 hour, I hurt just thinking about it, and I'm a dude, and I hurt for her, okay? Maybe you're clumsy like me, and every now and then you just fall,

and you hurt yourself in some way like that. When I was in high school, I played football. I said, I know, I know. You're looking at this physique, and you're like, tell us something we don't know. The worst pain that I've ever felt in my life was the year 1999, my sophomore year of high school. I was on the kickoff team, which means basically, you kick off to the other team, and you sprint for like 50 yards as fast as you can, and so the guy on the other team, he's from Prairie Grove High School, so all you 62 people from Prairie Grove, you're gonna like this, all right? And so I am running down as fast as I can. There's a statement in football that says keep your head on a swivel. You ever heard that statement? What it means is this. You best be looking around at all directions, because somebody's about to kill you. And so I don't have my head on a swivel. I'm just running, and I see the ball carrier, and I'm running like this, and little did I know, there's a guy waiting to kill me, number 77. I still remember his number, and he was a grown man with a beard, two kids, and a mortgage, okay? Playing high school football, and he absolutely kills me, like to the point that I've never been hit before that

or like that since that moment. Like if only I had a video to show, oh, wait, I do. Y'all wanna see it? You gotta watch quick at the beginning. I'm in the bottom left in a Navy jersey. My number is eight. Then it'll go into slow-mo, and you'll see it real clearly. All right, let's watch the screens. 20 by Sparkman at the right side, and it's gonna work his way around the left side. 20 by Sparkman at the right side. He's doing one on him at the right side. At the right side, at the right side. He's doing one. Nick Floyd was hit hard that time downfield by the Tigers. That was Jeff Colvert who stuck around and tried to stomp the fire out, a little taunting, but I'll tell you what, that was a big hit by the junior. All right, so for your viewing pleasure right there, all right, so in my day, we didn't lay on the field when we got hurt. We ran off, and I mean, I'm walking off, and my shoulder's just dangling, and so I go over there, and you see me. I'm swaying because I'm in so much pain, and the guy in the white hat who was behind me, that's the trainer for the school, and so his name was Bobby, so Bobby's helped me, asked me questions, and I'm in so much pain right now,

and he lifts his hand up my shoulder pad, and he pushes my shoulder back into place. I thought the hit was the worst pain in my life. What the trainer did to me was worse pain. That was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. I was diagnosed with what's called a subluxation, which is where, it's not a full dislocation. It's like a partial dislocation where your shoulder kind of slides out of the socket, but not all the way, so he just pushed it back in, and I think I cried as a little boy. Like, I'm just crying on the sidelines as he did that, and again, worst pain I've ever felt in my life. That's physical. I've had worse emotional. Anybody else? Our boy we're talking about, Joseph, he is a man who is well acquainted with pain. If you're new to our church this week, let me very briefly set up what happened last week. Joseph was the favorite son of his father, and yet, because of that, all of his other brothers hated him, and so they run through a litany of decisions. Hey, let's kill our brother. No, let's not kill him. Let's throw him in a pit. Wait, some people are driving by in some wagons and horses, and they're slave traders. Let's sell him into slavery. So they sell their own brother into slavery in Egypt,

and they go back and lie to their father that, hey, you know, your son's been killed by a wild animal, and here's his coat with all the blood on it, and so they lie to their father, and Joseph is a man well acquainted with pain. I mean, he is in a bad spot. Everything that was no longer is. It's what pain sometimes does to you, by the way. Circumstances are no longer how they had been. He's had to leave his family now, and he's in an unfamiliar place and not a good situation at all. He's living as a slave. R.T. Kendall wrote a book on the life of Joseph. Guess what he titled it? I totally stole it for the series. God Meant It For Good. God Meant It For Good. Listen to how R.T. describes the pain that Joseph experienced and that we all experience in life. He writes it this way. Pain is often the tool God uses to shape us for what lies ahead. What a powerful word. Pain is often the tool that God uses to shape for what he lies, for what lies ahead. This is 1,000% true in the life of Joseph. He's already experienced pain, and to be honest with you,

he's about to experience more pain. Now, the title of our message today is, God is in control of my pain. And you may say, well, that sounds like a dumb title because the last thing that I feel like is going on when I'm in the middle of pain is that God is in control. In fact, I wonder where God is, why is he not speaking? Why is he absent? Why did he go AWOL on me? Why is he allowed these things to do? And it's very easy, like can I take the pastor hat off for a second, just be a Christian Christian? It's very easy in these moments to get disappointed with God. In fact, that's exactly where some of you are at right now. If you're honest with yourself, you're disappointed with God. The essence of disappointment is this, I expected one thing to happen and something else happened. And we get into this relationship with God where whether it's unspoken or spoken, we have expectations of God. God, I don't wanna ever deal with anything that's hard. I don't want you to put me through anything that's ever painful. And when God allows things, we get frustrated with them, and it's really just a faulty understanding of who God is and what God does. But you've all faced disappointment.

I thought I was gonna marry that girl or that guy, and then we broke up. I thought that they were my friend, but then they stabbed me in the back. I thought that I was in line for the promotion at work, but then they gave it to the other guy or girl. You know what I'm saying? I expected one thing to happen and something else happened. This is Joseph's life right now. I expected to like grow up, live with my family, have a great relationship with my father, and now something is completely different. Here's the main idea of our message day. I'm gonna say this several times. I want you to write it down in your journal with you today. Pain is often the pathway to a deeper trust of God in your life. Pain in your life is often the pathway that God uses to a deeper trust of God in your life. When I say that statement, when I say that, man, God's in control, here's what you gotta understand, and I don't want you to miss this. God is never in the wrong. He's never in the wrong. Now, you might misunderstand his character. You might misunderstand his activity, but God is never in the wrong. It's literally impossible for him to be wrong and to do wrong.

I believe it was John Piper who said it this way one time. He said, if you knew what God knew, you would choose what God chose. In other words, if you knew what God knew about your life and about your future, you would wholeheartedly choose what God has chosen for you in the present. So let's talk about pain from the Bible today, all right? Let's look together. Genesis chapter 39, and we're gonna begin reading in verse one. It says, now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, here's this guy's name, the Bible ended last week. The chapter ended with Potiphar being the one who bought Joseph as a slave. He was an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, and he had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph. If you've got your Bible or journal, every time that we read something like that today, I want you to underline it or circle it in your Bible. And he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord, oh, there it is again, the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him. Potiphar made Joseph overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. Think about what we just read. Pause there for a moment. Potiphar noticed what about his life that was different. He noticed the presence of God, and he noticed the hand of God upon Joseph's life, and he was drawn to that, so much so that he's like, I'm gonna put everything in this guy's charge. What's the key? The Lord was with Joseph. Look back at verse two. The Lord was with Joseph, and because of that, he became successful. Verse three, Potiphar noticed that the Lord was with Joseph. Talk about life goals here, right? Anybody in this room wanna be known as a man or woman of God who has the presence of God upon their life? Anybody wanna be a man or woman of God who, man, above all things, people are like, man, just the hand of God is upon them. That is the life of Joseph right here. Now, when we talk about the presence of God, it's often something we only relegate to like the four walls of this room, of man, man, that song we sang was super emotional,

and I could feel the gravity and the glory of God in the room. I could sense the presence of God, and man, it was just so encouraging and heartwarming. Yes and amen to all that, okay? But did you realize that the presence of God is not stuck in this room? The presence of God can go with you to the office tomorrow. The presence of God can go with you today as you deal with that awkward family situation. The presence of God can go back to you on the University of Arkansas campus, back to your dorm room, and the Lord can be with you. That is the presence of God. There was a guy born in France in 1611, had a great name if you're thinking about naming a child. Name was Nicholas, Nicholas Herman, all right? Nicholas Herman was a poor man, and in that day, sometimes you would become a soldier just so you could have food and survive. And so Nicholas Herman becomes a soldier, and he has this deep experience with Christ, and so deep that he ended up joining a monastery, and he would later be known by the name of Brother Lawrence. Anybody ever heard of Brother Lawrence before? He would become what was known as a Carmelite friar, and when he died in 1691, someone put together all the letters from this monk as well as kind of pieced together conversations from him, and they compiled it and put it all into a book,

and here was the name of the book, Practicing the Presence of God. What a great title. In the book, it recounts his words, there is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it. Anybody read that and be like, golly, man, that's what I want, continual conversation with God throughout the day, continual relationship with God throughout my circumstances and in my life. Some of you look at Joseph in these first four verses, and you're like, well, man, I want that in my life. How do I become known as a man or woman of God who has the presence and hand of God upon their life? You know how you do it? You practice the presence of God. You're in an intimate relationship with Jesus, and this goes into every single area of your life. Now, here's how I would describe Joseph's life. I'll come back to this at the end of the message. It's like a heartbeat monitor. It starts out, he's at a great place, man, favorite son. Who doesn't wanna be the favorite son, right? Then he's sold into slavery, things are looking down, but then he's placed in a pod for his house, and he's lifted up again. So everything's looking up,

and I just gotta be honest with you, it's about to go down again. Like he's about to experience more pain. Look at the end of verse six. It says, now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. I'm not sure, I think in the Hebrew it means he was bald. I don't know, okay? Verse seven, and after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. If you're reading that going, is that saying what I think it's saying? Oh, it's saying it, and it's saying it, all right? Verse eight, but he, what? He refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he's put me in charge of everything that he has in my charge. This whole scenario, okay, is about to drastically affect the rest of his life. He denies Potiphar's wife. Listen, I'm not sleeping with you. And he ultimately gets ruined for it. Let's look down at verse 11. It says, but one day when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand,

and everybody underline or circle the word, and fled and got out of the house. Joseph is a man who is facing sexual temptation. Do you ever face sexual temptation? The appropriate answer is, yes, I do. That is every single person in this room in some fashion. And I want you to notice not only what he does, but what he does not do. He doesn't grab her by the hand and say, listen, let's sit down, let's talk this through. Are you unhappy in your marriage? What is Potiphar doing that's making you want to lie with me? I mean, I appreciate it, and you do look good today. He doesn't do that, right? What does he do? Yell it out, what does he do? He runs, he runs. You know what Joseph does for us here? He gives us an Old Testament picture of a New Testament principle. Everybody look at the screens. First Corinthians chapter six, what does Paul say? Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Paul said the same thing to his protege Timothy. Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Everybody write this statement down, okay? You don't fight sexual temptation, you run from it. sexual temptation. That is the word from the Bible today. You do not fight sexual temptation, you run from it. You don't try to willpower your way through it, you run away from it. Here's the reality. There are two groups of people in this room today. There are some of you who are aware of sexual temptation in your life, and you're actively fighting against it, and I mean that in a way like you're fleeing from it, okay? But you're aware of it. There are others of you who you're a Christian, maybe you're a baby Christian, this is all new to you, you don't really know what you're supposed to not do and do, but you're actively living in sexual immorality right now. You're sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you're addicted to pornography, you are flirting with people at the office that are not your spouse, just those things like that. And you don't even really think about it. And what I want you to understand from the word of God today is that I'm asking you to think about it. It's like a basic discipleship thing here, of like, I'm going to consider how I'm living. I often use the edge of the stage and talk about falling off the cliff of sin,

and we'll just use sexual sin today. Rarely in my experience as a pastor, and I've dealt with a whole lot of people across 20 years who've ended up at the bottom of the cliff in sexual brokenness. Rarely have I ever seen, if ever, somebody just one day wakes up and is like, I think I'm just gonna drive straight off the cliff and like, and they just like crash. What it ends up is it's more like if Joseph tried to reason this thing out with Potiphar's wife. I mean, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a little bit of this. I mean, we're not even doing anything, it was just a lunch. I mean, yeah, we're scheduling the same business trip together, but nothing's gonna happen. I mean, it's just one drink at the bar together that night. It's just a little porn. It's just a little, and before you know it, you compromise your way off of the cliff. And so I just, I feel very burdened this morning just to tell you is that at the end of this decision that you're making is a lot of brokenness, pain, and regret. Like you think you're in pain right now, that's pain, trust me. And so I just want you to know like if you're at the cliff, just hear me say this loud and clear, it's not too late. It's just not too late. Just turn around and repent and do the opposite of what you're doing right now.

I think if your life has been like my life, I find the enemy likes to tempt me when I'm in the middle of pain. Just a really hard situation. Well, Nick, you deserve this, man. You deserve a little pleasure. Like if anybody's in this scenario, don't you think Joseph was one who we could probably like fudge a little bit and say, man, he's had a hard life. He could have said, man, I got sold into slavery by my own brothers, and I'm living in this foreign land, and I mean, I probably have no hope of getting married. I'm a slave, but now this, I mean, she's good looking. She's trying to come on to me. Like is it that big of a deal? You see what I'm saying? And the enemy will try to get, he'll just try to talk to you in the middle of pain of how you deserve this. Nobody's gonna know, and then you fall off the cliff in brokenness, and then he keeps on talking. I can't believe you did that. You're an idiot. And he just accuses. And so again, if you find yourself on the edge of the cliff, today is a day to turn back. Let me speak to you next about the pain of misrepresentation. Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever been misrepresented in a situation? This is what's about to happen to Joseph. Look at verse 13. It says, and as soon as he saw that he had left his, as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, what'd she do? She called to the men of her household and said to them, see, he's brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. Truth or lie? Everybody yell it out. Truth or lie? Total lie. Total misrepresentation right here. And the opposite of what has happened. Did you realize that this whole idea of misrepresentation, is that not also the story of Jesus? Sent to earth to die for those he came to save, and yet while I was on earth, misrepresented, betrayed, killed. We've all been misrepresented. How about the pain of misunderstanding? You ever been misunderstood in a situation? Look at verse 19, skip down there. It says, as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me. His anger was kindled. Verse 20.

The pastor took him and put him where? Into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in prison. This misrepresentation, this misunderstanding led to a ruining of Joseph's life. He goes from being in charge of everything in Potiphar's life and house to the dude is now in prison. Talk about pain. And this gap between verse 20 and verse 21 was an opportunity for Joseph. You remember our main passage for today? That pain is often the pathway to a deeper trust of God in your life? Joseph finds himself at a clear fork in the road of am I gonna trust the Lord now that I'm in prison? Or am I going to abandon the Lord? Like that's his choice at the fork in the road today. And to be honest with you, some of you are at a similar fork in the road. You're walking through something very, very difficult. You're not sure what to do. Am I going to follow the Lord through this or am I going to abandon the faith that I'm living in right now, okay? Surely he's thinking things like this. Man, where's God right now? What is he doing? Why is he allowing this, okay? What's interesting is this,

is the Bible doesn't record what his response is. That's one of those, you read the Bible, and you're like, God, that, I mean, that would have been helpful to us. How did he respond? And yet, did you realize this? Everything that we have in the Bible is what we need in the Bible. So I think maybe the reason God left it out is because it's not about what Joseph does, it's about what God does. Did you realize that there are numerous times in your life where it's more important what God does than what you do? This is one of those in this moment. Look down at verse 21. Oh gosh, there it is again. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him what? Steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. And the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge. Why? Underline it again. Because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. What did God do? Look back at verse 21.

He was with him. Says it twice in that verse. Showed him steadfast love and God gave him favor. And in response, what did the keeper of the prison do? He put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. I didn't even think about it anymore. I didn't even think about anything that was under Joseph's charge, all because the hand of the Lord was with him. Anything he did, God made succeed. Can I give you a statement to write down in your journal today? God rarely explains his activity, but he constantly proves his presence. God rarely explains his activity, but he constantly proves his presence. Case in point, not once in my journey of following Jesus, I've been a Christian for about 30 years now, and not once has there ever been an audible voice from heaven where God has explained his activity of why I'm walking through pain. Now, maybe a little bit later, I got some perspective on it, but never once was there like an explanation from God in clarity of like, all right, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, because from heaven, there's an echo. You know that? This is why I'm making you go through this, this, this, this. Here's crystal clear clarity on why you're having to walk through this situation, situation, situation. Anybody else ever had that happen?

Again, perspective I've gotten, usually years later, never had explanation from God for why I've had to go through pain. You see, what we desire are answers, clarity, and explanation, and what I would tell you this morning is none of those are really going to fix your problem. If God explained everything to you in that way of, hey, this is why you gotta go through this, you got something coming up in three years, I'm gonna prepare you for this, you wouldn't like his explanation anyway. You say, well, surely there's another way. I don't have to go through this level of pain for that. So clarity's what you, it's really not what you need. Explanation is really not what you need. You know what you need? The presence of God. The presence of God is greater than the explanation from God. Like if you, everybody think in fractions. Presence is greater than explanation. Okay, that's all I can do in fractions right there. Like I'm in, like I'm done, okay? The presence of God is greater than explanation from God. Rarely will you ever get a glimpse of why God is making you go through. or why he's allowing certain things. And some of you, man, you're disappointed with God right now, you're frustrated with God, and today that needs to end.

You're frustrated wanting answers from God, explanations from God, now you want heads to roll right now. And God's like, I'm just, I'm just gonna give you me. Is that enough? You've seen the up and down nature of his life. It's like a heartbeat monitor, like I said. A little good action for you to do when you get home today, take a piece of paper out and just draw like a little heartbeat monitor. And I want you to walk through your life and I want you to write down the mountaintops in your life, like the great experiences with God in your life or in general, and then I want you to write those dark valleys at the bottom of the valley. And you say, well, why do you want us to do that? Well, you're gonna see that your life is like Joseph's. Really high highs, really low lows. Have you ever asked the Lord this question? Well, God, I get all that, that we're gonna have some really great moments, some really bad moments. Have you ever asked God, Lord, how am I supposed to not go crazy in the midst of all that? How am I supposed to remain constant in the midst of a life that's like this? Here's what I would tell you. You gotta have a hope that's deeper than yourself. You gotta have a hope that's deeper than clarity. And I would tell you, desperation for God and the presence of God is greater than any answer

that you're ever going to get from God. If you find yourself today in deep pain, I would say open up your ears. Open up your heart to the Lord. C.S. Lewis once said this famous quote, I've given it to you before, that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Is God trying to rouse you awake today? Is he trying to speak to spiritually deaf ears that you've had? And he's like, listen, I've tried this, I've tried this, you're not listening, it's this. And now you're at attention before the Lord, ready to see what it is he wants to do. Let God use pain in your life. Just let God use pain in your life. The one thing that made the difference in Joseph's life in the middle of his pain, the presence of God. If you're here today and you're in pain, that's what you need. Not the end of the trial, you need the presence of God in the middle of the trial. Maybe you're here today and say, actually I'm at a pretty good place, I'm more at the high spectrum right now of the heartbeat monitor. And I'm not really dealing with pain.

Did you realize that the answer is still the same for you? What do you need in the high moments of your life? Presence of God. Like you need his touch, his hand upon your life. Again, one more time, main thought. Pain is often the pathway to a deeper trust of God in your life. Did you realize that there's a connection between those two things? If you're like, man, I wanna be a man of God or a woman of God like Joseph. I want the hand and presence of God to be on my life. I just don't really know how. You know how you do it? You go deeper in your walk with Jesus, deeper in your trust of God. You find yourself at the fork in the road, abandon God or deeper trust with God, I'm going deeper trust with God. When the stuff hits the fan in my life, where am I going? Am I going to immorality? Am I going to a bottle or a bottle of pills? Am I going to sin? Or am I going, Lord, I'm all in with you. I don't necessarily like this. I don't understand this, but Lord, I'm leaning into you right now. That's what God's asking of you today. That night on the football field in 1999,

when the trainer stuck his hand up my shoulder pad, he had to put something back into place. Now, had I known that it was going to hurt worse than the initial pain of the hit, I would have backed away from the trainer and be like, uh-uh, no more pain. But for healing to take place, it had to be put back into place. For some of you are out with the Lord, where you're in the middle of pain and it's about to increase because some things have been out of place that God's putting back into place. And that's a hard thing, especially if you've been wandering away from the Lord and your relationships are out of whack, your purity's out of whack, your sin struggles are out of whack, and you've just bought into that, and God's like, hey, I'm gonna have to put some things back into place for this to happen. And usually our response is, no, no, I don't want any of that. I don't want any more pain. And God's telling some of you today, I've gotta put some things back into place so that healing can begin. Will you allow the Lord to do that today? These are hard decisions. Some of your friendships need to be put back into place.

Some of your marriages need to be put back into place. And this is not like a decision like, okay, Lord, I surrender it in church and oh, it's all gonna be better. No, this is like the grind of obedience to Jesus in every aspect of your life. And that's a hard grind at times, but it's a worthy grind. Some of you are here today and you're here and you're in pain. And you've been looking at God, disappointed with God, angry at God, and you're shaking your fists and I need answers. I need clarity to what's going on in my life. And you've been through this message and you're like, Lord, I'm just ready to just lay that down. And I just wanna have a deeper trust. If that's you today at any campus, I'm just gonna invite you to just come to the altar as we wrap up and just cry out to the Lord. Lord, I've been longing for this, but I know what I really just need is you. Would you just cry out to him? Maybe you're here and you are the person who is just angry at God. I mean, just fed up, disappointed for the pain that he's allowed in your life. Maybe that was as a child or teenager. Maybe that's a present pain. But man, you've had a real struggle in your life

moving past this in your relationship with God. And you know you need to get right with God on that. Like you know there needs to be a submission to the Lord in that area of your life. I'm gonna ask you to come. Some of you are here today and God is in the process of putting some things back into place like I just mentioned. And you fought against it. Even right now, you're arguing with me even though I'm not arguing with you. But you're arguing with me in your mind of like, well, there's no way. I can't do that. It's too hard. We're too far gone. Like there's no way. And I'm just gonna ask you, if you find yourself in a hopeless situation like that, of like, Lord, there's no way. I'm just gonna ask you to come and just say, Lord, would you make a way? Some of you are at the bottom of the barrel, rock bottom. And you're facing despair. I don't know if you've ever been at a moment of despair. I've been there before. And man, you just need to sense the presence of God today. I'm just gonna ask you to come. And just say, Lord, I need to feel you.

I need to sense you. I need to hear from you. For some of you, God is using pain right now to draw you to himself for the very first time. In fact, many people's testimonies of how they came to faith in Christ was all through the avenue of pain. You know what? When I got divorced. You know what? When I went through cancer. Hey, you know what? When I went through the car wreck that like changed my life. And people give testimonies like that. And could it be that God is allowing pain into your life for the very reason of drawing you to receive Christ for the very first time? If that's you in the room today, and you know it, today is the day to be saved. I want us to bow our head and close our eyes. All across this room, our staff's gonna make their way to the front of each aisle. If you're here today and you need Christ, like I'm talking to you, and you say, Nick, I feel like you're speaking directly to me right now. If you know of your need for Christ, and you're ready to just surrender your life once and for all, I'm just gonna ask you to come as soon as we stand and sing.

The people beside you, they're gonna let you out of the aisle. Just say, excuse me. And I'm just gonna ask you to come to the man or woman that's closest to you, that are a member of our team. And all you gotta do is take them by the hand and say, I need to give my life to Jesus. In a very private moment, they'll lead you to faith in Christ. You don't have to come on stage. I don't have to do anything weird, but just you and that person. There's others of you who you fit into one of those other categories of, man, you've just been angry with God, but man, you're ready to submit that to him. Or you're just desperate to feel the presence of God in your life. Maybe you're about to walk into a season of your life or career or family, where you would just say, Nick, I need the presence of God right now in my life. Like I need the hand of God upon me. Man, our staff's here to pray with you if you want somebody to pray with you. But if you just want to come and just kneel at the altar and do business with God, just tell him, Lord, I need you right now. I'm desperate for your touch upon my life.

You come, Lord, as we wrap up our service today, pray that you draw people to yourself, whatever that looks like. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. Let's stand together all over this room. If you need to come, this is the moment right now. You go ahead as we sing. ♪ Way maker, miracle worker ♪ ♪ Promise keeper, light in the darkness my God ♪ God's speaking to you about your life, your soldier's open, our staff is here. You come on. ♪ Way maker, miracle worker ♪ ♪ Promise keeper, light in the darkness my God ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ God's speaking to you right now. ♪ Way maker, miracle worker ♪ ♪ Promise keeper, light in the darkness my God ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ That's who you are. ♪ Way maker, miracle worker ♪ Come on, it's not too late. You can come. ♪ Light in the darkness my God ♪ God's singing to you, pray to a way maker. Anybody need God to make a way? ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪

Come on, let us sing. ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ ♪ That is who you are ♪ Even when. ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel that you're working ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working, ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel that you're working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working, ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working, ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel that you're working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop, never stop, ♪ ♪ Even when I don't see it, you're working, ♪ ♪ Even when I don't feel that you're working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you never stop working, ♪ ♪ You never stop, you're the waymaker, waymaker, ♪ ♪ Miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, ♪ ♪ That is who you are, it's who you are, waymaker, ♪ ♪ Miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, ♪ ♪ That is who you are, come on, lift every voice, sing it again, waymaker, ♪ ♪ Miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, ♪ ♪ That is who you are, yes it is, it's who you are, waymaker, ♪ ♪ Miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, ♪ ♪ That is who you are. ♪