Grace for Times of Trouble - Grace for Today, Pt. 1

♪♪ Announcer 2, voiceover, In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, grace for times of trouble. ♪♪ There are all different kinds of ways to respond to affliction and suffering and hurt and trials and tribulations in our life. Sometimes the simplest thing to do is just to rebel against it. Sometimes we choose to very stoically reserve ourselves and decide we're just going to bear up under it. Sometimes we whine and groan and we moan and we complain about it. Once in a while we may understand what Paul meant and we may respond the way Paul responded, that is with joyful understanding of God's purpose in allowing that affliction or that pain. I wonder which of those best describes the way you respond to suffering and heartache in your life. You know, one of the errors that's going around today is that if you pray long enough and hard enough and if you believe enough, then God will change any and every circumstance of life. And that change depends really on whether we have enough faith or we pray long enough, hard enough, intensely enough. Well, if that's true, then there's one passage of Scripture that we have to look at again. It's the passage that I want to look at today because I believe this is the pinnacle passage in all the Bible, the mountain peak passage when it comes to dealing with the grace of God and the light of how it relates to our pain and our suffering and our

heartache and our hardship that we endure in life. All of us are going to experience those things. It may be physical pain as a result of some disease or some accident. It could be something even worse than that, and that's emotional pain because of a broken home, because of the loss of a loved one, because of loss of finances, because of circumstances and situation, because it could take a thousand different avenues. There's all kind of causes of pain. But how does this grace of God, this goodness and graciousness of God, which he pours out toward us without any regard to our merit or our worth in spite of everything we deserve, what about this grace of God in our life in the times of pain and suffering and heartache? And also, what about those things that don't seem to change? Where is the grace of God when things don't change? Where is the grace of God when you've prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing happens? When your friends have prayed and you've prayed and you've obeyed God and trusted him and took your stand and claimed this and claimed that and claimed the other, where is God? Well, that's a good question because, you see, there are a lot of folks in situations and circumstances that don't seem to change and they have prayed and their friends have prayed and they've obeyed God and they've given, they've done everything they know to do. Nothing's changed. What about the grace of God? Well, that's what I want to talk about. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians chapter

12. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says. You recall that God has been giving him these tremendous revelations of truth and he's understanding things he's never understood before, things that people have never understood before him. And so he says in verse 7, beginning in verse 7 of chapter 12, and because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that he might depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul says, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Then he says, 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. Well, I want you to jot down three statements and then we'll talk about each one of them. I'm going to give them to you one at a time. And I want you to take the time to write them down. I'm not going to hurry them because they're so very, very important. I want you to jot down this entire statement. You ready? Grace is God's answer to our pain and affliction when he may

or may not choose to change my circumstances. Grace is God's answer to my pain and affliction and circumstances. when he may or may not choose to change my circumstances. God does not guarantee to change my circumstances no matter how painful they may be. Now, let's look at the Apostle Paul for just a moment. The Scripture says here, in describing his own situation, the nature of his pain was, he called it, a thorn. He says, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Now, the word thorn is, the only time it's used in the New Testament, was like a stake sharp on the end. And it was the kind of stake that oftentimes large ones would be placed around fortifications to impale the enemy when they attacked a fortification. Paul says, God had allowed Satan. He says, this messenger of Satan brought about this stake that came into his life, this thorn, this painful experience in his life. And he said, it was there, and so the Apostle Paul began his ministry and lived with this kind of thorn. Now, I want you to listen carefully because I know that God has something to say to every single person who hears this message. Sometimes, God will respond to our prayers. He will respond to our acts of obedience in other areas. He will respond and change our circumstances as a result of our prayer and obedience to him. Sometimes, he will. In fact, most of the time, he probably does. And so, when people say, well, all you've got to do, brothers, is just name it and claim it, and God will do it, because he does often, and probably most of the time, is no sign that he'll do it all the time. Anybody who's told you that God will always change your circumstances and always heal you and always make things better and answer your prayer and obedience didn't tell you the truth.

Now, listen. You see, the reason he doesn't always do those things is not because, listen, it's not because we're not hurting. The reason he doesn't change it isn't because our faith is too weak. It isn't always because we're not absolutely obedient in every single area of our life. It isn't always because of the nature of the pain. He can do anything. It isn't because we haven't prayed long enough, hard enough. It isn't because we don't love God. It isn't because we're not sincere. That's not the reason. Well, when I look at this passage, I have to ask myself the question, what is it that determines whether God changes my circumstances or not? Listen, if it is not my faith, if it is not how obedient I am and how long I've prayed, how intensely I've prayed, how sincerely I've been, if it isn't that I love God, if none of those things matter, what ultimately determines whether God is going to change my circumstances or not? One simple thing. Now, listen to this. What makes the determining factor is God's purpose in allowing the pain and suffering and heartache and trouble and trial and difficult circumstances. What is his purpose? Look at the life of the apostle Paul. He said he prayed for God three times. He says he prayed for God to remove this thing. Remove it. And he said somehow God didn't remove it. Paul said the reason God didn't remove it was in order to keep him humble. Now, you say, well, listen, if God will just tell me to get humble, I will. God doesn't have to send me any of those things to get me humble.

Well, that's what we think about ourselves. But you know what? He said, Paul, he said to keep you from exalting yourself because if you exalt yourself, Paul, what you're going to do is ruin my big purpose for your life. If you get prideful and egotistical about what I've shown you, if you start strutting around that you have the last word from Almighty God, Jehovah God, if you get to strutting around talking about what you know and that you got it and that you're the only one who's got it, you have the truth, the final truth. Just listen. If you want to find the truth, just check in with the apostle Paul. He'll straighten you out on all doctrinal issues. Paul, if I don't keep you on your face, if I don't keep you humble, if I don't keep you on your knees, if I don't keep you weak, if I don't keep you absolutely totally dependent upon me, you're going to blow the whole thing, Paul, and my purpose is far greater than your individual life. Think what you and I would have missed. So what he's saying to us is that God, listen to this, that God's purpose for our life may be that our circumstance, our situation, our suffering and heartache and pain, his purpose for our life may require that it remain there. A short period of time, a long period of time, or until He calls us home. Now, here's the question. It isn't a matter of whether God has the power to remove it or not. That's not even the issue. The issue is this. Do I love Him enough? Do I love Him enough? Do I want His will more than I want my ease, comfort, and pleasure? Am I willing to say with the Apostle Paul, yes, I can rejoice even in the midst of pain

and suffering and heartache? So you ask yourself this question. Which is the greatest demonstration of God's power? To change something around me, some physical or some relational or some financial circumstance, what is the greatest exhibition of His power? To change those things or to so work in the human heart, to so strengthen the inner emotional being, to so release within our spirit His own light, that while none of that changes, we rise above that and we can rejoice in that. And there can be an overwhelming sense of indescribable peace in spite of that. That is the greatest demonstration of God's power. And Paul says, this is what I learned. Second statement I want you to write down. Grace is God's method of demonstrating His love and power. God's grace is His method of demonstrating His love and power in the midst of circumstances which He may or may not change. It is God's method of demonstrating that. Now, the intensity of Paul's situation was the terms he used. Look at this. First of all, he said, there was given to me a thorn. Then if you'll notice, he says, he uses this word four times. In verse 9, he says, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. And again, he says, therefore, I boast about my weaknesses. Verse 10, therefore, I'm well content with my weaknesses. And then he says in the latter part, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I'm strong. Four times he talks about his weakness. And because of this thorn in his side, because of this stake, he said, I feel so inadequate and so weak, and probably Paul was physically weary at times. I'm sure he had to be to do what he was doing. Physically weak, emotionally weak, and strained oftentimes.

Listen, no matter how much you trust God, that kind of continual harassment by his enemies over and over and over again, day after day after day, it certainly had to get to Paul once in a while. Yet, he says, in spite of all of that, in spite of that, he says, when I am the weakest, he says, something happens on the inside of me. All of his travels, he says his weaknesses, he entreated God three times. And so, here is his way of picturing the intensity of what he was dealing with. And yet, something happens here. He says, God demonstrated, God demonstrated in this bad circumstance, his love toward him in the fact that he told him why. He says, now, Paul, the reason my grace is sufficient for you, and the reason I'm leaving this here is because, listen to this, I love you, Paul, and I value my purpose far greater than I do your comfort and your ease and your pleasure and the healing of what you're feeling. Let me ask you this, are you willing to suffer for God's sake and the sake of other people? Are you willing to hurt if you know that your hurt is going to bring healing to someone else? Are you willing to experience pain if your pain is going to be part of the perfecting of someone else's spiritual walk? Are you willing to bear burdens which you know will result in someone else's burden being lifted? Are you willing to hurt when you know that that hurt is going to be a part of somebody else's healing? You see, the truth is, we're just real selfish, to be honest. Oh, we'd rather pray for somebody else to be healed and for somebody else's needs to be met, and we want to give to them and pray for them, but just leave me out of the hurt triangle, God. Just leave me out of that cycle. I'm willing to give. I'm willing to pray.

I'm willing to just, Lord, I'll just, you name it, God, I'll fast, anything. Just leave me out of the cycle. What we are saying is, God, I want to be a spectator on somebody else's hurts. I want to be a spectator on somebody else's pain. Lord, just, I'll send it by mail. God says no. There are times when I want to accomplish my purpose in your life, you're going to have to hurt, and you're going to have to suffer, and you're going to have to bleed, and you're going to have to suffer. Have your thorn. How long is it gonna be there? Nobody knows that but God. I'll give you a very personal example. Now, I think I had part of the answer, but my mom lived to be 84, and she married my dad when she was about 24 or five, somewhere thereabouts, and that was a short marriage because he died in about three years. A few months before my mom became ill and passed away, she was still asking me this question. Now, why do you think God would take your father when I loved him so much, and he loved me so much, and we were so happy and so delighted, and then you just came along? Why would God do that? And all those years, I could never answer that to her satisfaction. And you know what?

God's gonna allow some things in your life and my life. We'll never be able to answer to our satisfaction on this side. So what am I supposed to do? Just doubt God and get angry and have a big pity party about how unfair and unjust he is? Or am I gonna be wise enough to say, okay, God, I don't have to know why. All I have to do is know how to respond. And I know that if you allow this in my life, you've got a purpose that's got to be fantastic. It won't be the same purpose as it was in Paul's life, but it's gonna be good. You know why? Because God is a good God. And the only way a holy, loving, righteous God treats his children is lovingly. That's the only way he treats us. You say thorn love? Yes. Because more important, listen to this, more important than what you and I feel is what we know. That's so much more important than what we feel. Feelings come and go, but what we know is like a rock, it's solid. It keeps us hanging in there when things get tough. That's what a saint's like, who's living in the grace of God. There is no wave Satan can send your way

that can move you one step out of the grace of God. Not a single solitary one of them. That's the grace of God. He said, Paul said, my grace is sufficient. Third statement I want you to jot down. God's grace is his provision for our contentment in times of pain and suffering. God's grace is his provision for our contentment in those times. Look at this. This last verse, verse 10 says, therefore, because of what God had said to him, he says, therefore, I'm well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties. For Christ's sake, he says, because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Now think about this. This is what you and I would say. We would say, wait a minute. It is the absence of insults, persecutions, hardships, trials, and sufferings. The absence of those equals contentment. Paul said, no, no, wait a minute. He said, it is with insults, persecutions, hardships, trials, suffering, and pain, with these, he says, I have contentment. We say, now, wait a minute, Paul. No, no, it's the absence of these that equal contentment. That's not even rational. That's not sensible.

That's not even common sense. To say that insults, persecutions, trials, pain, suffering, heartache, is compatible with contentment. You know why it is? Because the Christ, the Lord, the Lord says, because the Christ who lives on the inside of you and me is greater than all of that. And when Jesus, living within us, is allowed to release his life through us, there is no insult, no persecution, no pain, no trial, no heartache, greater than the provision of the grace of God within us to endure it, and to endure it not whining, but triumphantly, victoriously, and joyously, no matter how intense the hurt and the pain. You see, the apostle Paul knew something when he said, God said to him, my grace is sufficient. How do you describe the source of that contentment? It is Christ. Listen to this. It is Jesus within you. You say, well, how can I have, how can I experience that kind? Listen to this. Simply trusting in the life of Jesus within you to express through you everything he promised. You see, Paul's two key words. You can wrap up all of Paul's theology in this phrase, in Christ. When you and I are in Him and He's in us, all the grace of a God of grace is indwelling

us ready to be, listen, ready to be extracted, ready to be, listen, He wants us to live out of His grace, live out of His love, live out of His power. That's the source of everything that we need. And Paul says, I learned something better than God changing my circumstances. I learned that the Christ who lives within me is greater than not only these bad circumstances, but those that may come, those that come in the future. God's up to something big in your life when He allows the thorn to remain, but the grace to supersede it.