It's A Setup | Ryan Kramer

Hey, welcome to a kickoff of a brand new series today called Pressed, Not Crushed, and I've been excited about today's message specifically because we're gonna shake some theological trees this morning. Anybody ever get a theological tree shake? It kind of rattles some of the stuff that you believe in God and faith kind of at the core, and so we're gonna have a little bit of fun with that today, but I promise you, by the time we get to the end, as we lean into some of the tension today, that it's gonna be a game changer for us because it's gonna help us to frame one important idea. This is really my goal for today is to help us understand that you and I are often never more in God's will than when life doesn't go our way. We're never more in God's will than when life doesn't go our way. How many chess players I got out here? How many people like to play the game of chess? Yeah, a few of you. I'm not a big chess player because I've got attention deficit disorder, and it just takes way too long to play the game of chess, but I don't know if you know this, but the longest game of chess to ever be played was 1989. It was 289 moves, which means nothing to me because I'm not a chess player, but it was 20 hours and 15 minutes. 20 hours and 15 minutes playing the game of chess.

Well, here's why I think chess takes a little bit of time. I think it's because there's such strategy and intentionality that goes behind the game of chess. You know, the goal of the game of chess is to kind of move your pieces around the board in order to capture the what? The king. That is the goal, capture the king. And what often happens in the game of chess, and this is the part that really kind of intrigues the strategy guy on the inside of me, is that oftentimes, in order to get into position to win the game, somebody's gotta make some moves that don't make a whole lot of sense, right? Like when you first start, if you're a chess player, when you start kind of moving those things around the board, some of the moves don't make a lot of sense. Some of the moves may even look like bad moves, but what every good chess player understands is that what appears to be a bad move is often a setup move to position them to win the game. You see, sometimes they have to lose something in order to get into position to win something. And this morning, I wanna suggest, as we kick off this series, Press Not Crushed, I wanna suggest this reality that life is a lot like the game of chess, and that sometimes you and I have to go through some things. Sometimes you and I have to lose some things in order for God to get us into position to win some things.

Today, I'm gonna talk to you from this title, It's a Setup, It's a Setup. Hey, turn to two people, say, he's getting you into position. He's getting you into position. He's getting you ready, getting you ready. Well, hey, if we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name's Ryan, and a little bit of background. I'm Ryan, and the lead pastor here. Such an honor that you've chosen to worship with us today, and wanna welcome those that might be tuning in later in the week or on the live stream. Today, as we kick off this series, we kind of build the idea of this series around this passage of scripture that's found in 2 Corinthians chapter four, eight through 10. It says that we are pressed on every side by what? Troubles. We're pressed by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, meaning we may not quite understand why things are happening the way they're happening, but we are not driven to despair, to giving up, that we are hunted down, but never abandoned by God, that we get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Now, say these next two words with me in verse 10. Through suffering, yes, through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus. Why? So that. that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

In other words, what the apostle Paul is trying to help us identify through this passage today is that pain often positions us for purpose. I know, I know, I know. Pain often positions us for purpose. For purpose. And today I wanna unpack why that reality is truth. If you got your Bibles, turn with me to Luke chapter 22. And I wanna kinda set up the scene here for just a moment. Luke 22 is the Last Supper. It's hours before Jesus ends up his journey to the cross. And all the disciples have come together and they're eating a meal with Jesus. And a lot of amazing things, like Jesus has got like a bunch of mic drop conversations and statements that's in this moment around the Last Supper. But what I wanna do is I wanna zoom in to one specific thing that he says and the reason why I wanna zoom into this is because this has bothered me for a long time. Like, I don't know about you, like if you always read the Bible and everything you love, but sometimes I read the Bible and some of the stuff really bothers me. Like, I just, I struggle to understand, you know, why some of the things are in the Bible. And this is one of those things that I struggle to understand. And this is one of those things

that I struggled to understand for so long, why Jesus says what he's about to say to Simon Peter. And the reason why I struggled with it so much is because it contradicts the picture that often we have of Jesus, the picture of the loving Jesus, the picture of the gracious Jesus, the picture of the forgiving Jesus, right? The picture of Jesus with his white gown and his long flowy hair walking along the beach, you know, and the hair's just moving. Like, it contradicts that Jesus that we often kind of build the framework of our faith around. And here's what Jesus says to Simon Peter. He says, Simon, Simon, Satan. Well, Satan's asked to sift you. He's asked to sift you. He's asked to sift each of you that are here around the table today like wheat. Now, this word sift in the original language means to be shaken violently. Doesn't sound very exciting, not necessarily what you're posting on social media about Jesus, but nonetheless, Jesus makes the statement to Simon Peter, listen, Satan has asked if he can sift you. Now, honestly, the more I think about that, the more I wonder, I'm not quite sure that Satan used the word sift

because Satan is so ignorant of God's plans that from his standpoint, he's just wanting to attack with adversity. It's God who understands that sifting, that there is a method behind the madness. And so Jesus is in this moment to Simon Peter, letting Simon Peter know like something's about to come against you in your life, but it's a setup moment. Like, it's not adversity without a purpose, that it is a setup, that Satan is sifting you. I mean, doesn't that bother you a little bit? Like to think of Jesus in this moment, like why would Jesus allow Peter to go through some pain? Why would this loving, gracious, forgiving Jesus allow Peter to go through some things that might not feel like the happy, go lucky, pain-free life that all of us like dream of and pursue? Like Jesus is allowing Satan to bring trials and pain, the kind of trials and pain that's gonna shake Peter. Peter to the core, and what does Jesus say? Jesus doesn't look at Satan and say, ah, go kick rocks. He doesn't look at Satan and be like, get thee behind me, Satan. He says, yes, yes, Satan, you can sift Peter. And then in verse 32, here's what Jesus says after that. He says, but notice this, that I have pleaded in prayer for you. Now I read that, like some of you may read that and find a lot of encouragement for that.

I read that initially, and I'm like, dude, what the heck, Jesus? Like, oh, I'm praying for you, brother. Like, good luck, you know? Like, we do that all the time, don't we? Like, when somebody's going through a hard time, we'll be like, I'm praying for you. And we never pray for them, right? Is that what's happening here, like, with Jesus? You know, but watch this. Watch what Jesus is actually praying for. Not that the pain would go away, not that Simon Peter would never have to walk through it, but that his faith wouldn't fail. You know, I look at that last statement, and here's what I believe about that, that Jesus isn't making the statement about his faith not failing regarding a specific moment or event, that Jesus is seeing the big picture, because we all fall, we all make mistakes, we all fall short. I think what Jesus is saying in this moment is that I have to allow Satan to sift you. You've got to walk through some pain and some pressure in your life so that your life itself doesn't become a failure. See, here's the theological tree shaking, is this idea that God allows pain in our life to position us for our purpose.

Sometimes God allows pain in our life, much like a good chess player, to position us for purpose. I mean, I think of Simon Peter and his kind of journey and his story and his life. He's a fisherman doing his own life, doing his own thing, and Jesus comes along and calls Simon Peter to come and follow him, and Peter kind of drops everything and goes and follows Jesus, and he's following Jesus, and Jesus gives him this great just like purpose, this calling in life. He tells Simon, listen, I'm gonna change your name to Peter, that you are a rock, and that I'm gonna build my church upon this rock. Like Jesus changes his name, gives him a purpose before Peter was even ready to walk in it. You see, before Peter could walk in what Jesus was already speaking over him, he had to go through some sifting in his life. You see, Peter didn't recognize all of the pride. He didn't recognize all the arrogance in his life. He didn't recognize the fact that he had a tendency to be a little quick-tempered and to just kind of respond, and my man's a fisherman, so no telling what the language in his life looked like. I mean, there was a lot about Peter

that he didn't quite understand, and so Jesus recognized that he needed to go through some sifting in his life in order to position him for the ultimate purpose they had for him. And so what's some of the sifting? Well, one of the sifting moments or events in Peter's life that most of us may be aware of is the moment that Peter, when Jesus is kind of on trial and Peter's on the outskirts of the little house, community courtyard, and all of a sudden people start coming up and saying, hey, aren't you with that guy, with Jesus? And the fear, the fear of losing his life, of having to walk through the same things that Jesus walked through overcame him, and Peter denies Jesus three times. You see, the sifting in Peter's life, God allowed so that Peter could walk through some lessons and some experiences so that he could begin to identify the things in his life that would keep him ultimately from God's purpose. for his life. And it's in those lessons that as Peter began to change some things in his life, that God used that to propel him towards his purpose. Friend, if God uses pain in our life as part of his strategy to set you and I up for our purpose, then you and I better ask a really important question, and that is why.

Like why would God allow the creation that he loves so much, the creation that he sent his one and only son to die on a cross to save, why would he allow that creation to walk through and experience pain and difficulty in our lives? And pressure in their life. We've gotta understand why, because if we don't understand the reason why, then we end up spending the rest of our life misinterpreting every bad experience that we walk through. And friend, when we do that, it ends up leading to a devastating result. And so today I wanna share three reasons why you and I walk through pain in our life, why God uses that and how he uses it to get us to our purpose. These are three points, it's not all the points, but I wanna share three with you today. The first one is this, that pain is intended to be a revealer, not a destroyer. Pain in our life is meant to be, intended to be a revealer in our life, not a destroyer. Look at Romans chapter five, verse three through four. Paul says that we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials. Exciting, Paul's saying, like these are good moments, running into problems and trials, for we know that they help us to develop some endurance. And endurance develops strength of character

and character strengthens our confident hope in salvation. You see, most of us in life, we want the endurance part, we want the character part, we want the hope part. We wanna know that what we're currently walking through and living in is not the end, that there is more to our life. Like all of us want that stuff in our life, but can I be honest? Like few of us wanna walk through the pain that produces it. We want all the good stuff, but we don't wanna walk through the pain that produces it. I wanna show it to you, demonstrate it this way. James, would you mind joining me up here on the platform? Give it up for the best youth and young adult pastor ever. Yes. Yes. So I got my little apron here that I wanna wear today as I'm working with some cooking, some ingredients here. It says your opinion wasn't in the recipe. Wonder if this is the apron God wears around heaven all the time, right? Right? So here's what I want you to see today as it relates to how pain is a revealer, not a destroyer. That in our life, our life kind of represents, is represented here by flour. And flour has a purpose. And in order for the flour to really function properly in its purpose, if you're a chef or whatever in here, you have to sift it a little bit.

Sifting again is shaking violently, right? And what you'll see about this is that on the outside, everything looks great. Looks like a container that's full of flour. We're gonna sift it and no big deal, this will be ready to begin to cook. But I want you to notice something as we begin to sift it. As I move out of the way. Is that as this flour begins to be shaken violently, that's good. You're gonna begin to notice that there's some things that come out in the sifting. Some things that you didn't recognize from the outside when you looked at the container of flour, they were in there, but you didn't know they were in there. You see these pebbles right here in a pie crust, aren't gonna be very tasty. You're gonna break some teeth like I break some teeth. You see, God takes us through a process of pain, oftentimes to sift out, to allow some of the pain that we experience to reveal some things in our life. Notice this, on purpose, because there is potential in the flower, the flower will never reach its full potential if it has rocks in it. It's got to go through a sifting process in order for the rocks to be removed so that it can fulfill its purpose. And friend, when it comes to pain in our life, pain is meant to be a revealer, not a destroyer.

And so one of the ways that we can misinterpret the things that we walk through in our life is when we don't look at the pain that we're walking through as an opportunity to do the second thing, which is pain helps us grow closer to God. It helps us grow. Like we can't grow in our relationship with God if we don't experience some pain. Now, about a year and a half ago or so, I went to the doctor and I got some blood work. And that blood work, that blood work kind of rattled me a little bit to the core because there was some things, I'm 48 now, and there were some things that were reflected in that blood work that were some generational sicknesses and things that I was kind of a precursor for that. And so I had to make a decision. Either I'm going to continue to just live the life that I'm living, do my own thing, and allow the sickness to begin to develop and to get worse and worse, and ultimately keep me from fulfilling whatever purpose God has for me. Or I had to lean into some difficult things. I had to make some new choices. I had to change some behaviors in my life. And so my doctor said, and so my doctor kind of put me on a routine and it was more of a holistic, meaning that we're going to address some of this stuff

with some medication, but I want to address some of it with some exercise. I want to do like some of these different things, some counseling, like we're going to kind of, we're going to do like the whole, the whole picture here. And so I began this journey and part of the physical journey of getting healthier was I had to do what most of us hate to do. And that's to walk foot into a gym. Oh. Man, there's just something about walking into a gym. Like it's one thing when you walk into the gym and you're in shape, right? Like you're like old McGregor on the thing, like you're like this, you know? But when you walk into a gym and you're not in shape, I mean, it's like, it's the most embarrassing thing, right? And so I had to walk in and I had to start doing some things that I didn't feel like doing. I had to start leaning into some new routines in my life. And one of those was beginning to lift weight. And as I began to lift weight, here's what I began to notice as it relates to this idea of pain being necessary for growth, is that if I just go into a gym and I stand there, nothing's going to change, right? I can say that I'm in the gym. I can say that I went to church. Oh.

I can say that I'm in that small group. I can say that I'm listening to that Christian music. Like I can say some of that stuff. But if I'm not actually lifting weights, then my muscles aren't growing. And here's the thing that I learned about lifting weights. It hurts. It hurts. Why does lifting weight hurt? Because when you're lifting weights, you are literally tearing apart the fibers and the muscles in those body parts. Lifting weights is tearing those apart and the process of growing those muscles is a process of tearing them down and then the day or two following, experiencing pain and discomfort, right? And then as you get to the other side of the pain and discomfort, you have healing of those muscles, which when it heals, it heals back stronger than it was before it was torn down. And I had to come to grips with the pain and to recognize, to change the way that I labeled the pain that I felt after working out. You see, I had to change, I had to relabel it into recognizing that soreness is a sign of growth. And could it be in our relationship with God that so oftentimes we get frustrated because we feel like our life is just purposeless,

like nothing real, we're seeking the happy-go-lucky, pain-free life, and God's trying to get us towards our purpose, and so sometimes we'll kinda walk into the gym, sometimes we'll walk into the church, we'll do some little things here and there, but the moment pain hits, we don't like the soreness. And so what do we do when the soreness happens? We begin to pull away. And that's the third thing that I wanna show you today. The third thing about pain is that it helps us see our need for community. I want you to notice this. That when it comes to pain, which we all experience in our life, there's two outcomes for pain. There's setback and there's setup. Setback is that I go back, backwards in my relationship with God, back to maybe even some things that I have since walked out of. Setup, meaning that I'm moving towards the purposes of God in my life despite the pain that I'm walking with. All right, there's only two options, setback or setup. And here's what you and I have to recognize when it comes to pain, that Satan's desire for pain is not that we sin, get this, it's that we isolate. Yeah. It's not as much sin as it is that we isolate. See, when you and I go through adversity and we experience pain, John 10, 10, the first part of that says that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.

How does he do that? He does that through isolation. So he essentially tempts us to move away from the setup, move away from the community of faith that we find strength in the midst of difficult situations and to isolate by ourself. To begin to move into this state where we began to entertain old mindsets, where we began to entertain old ways of living. It's in an isolated lifestyle that we began to doubt God. It's in an isolated lifestyle that we began to pull away from the church and pull away from the very people that God has placed in our life to help be a support through the pain. And when we allow the enemy to isolate us in that way, now think about that. Think about the last big sin you had in your life. Think about the thing in your life that you did that brought shame and it brought embarrassment. Think about what the temptation was. I mean, the isolation is, it's something we don't recognize, but it's real. We have embarrassment, shame, all of that kind of stuff, doubt, and it pulls us further and further away. And why does Satan try to pull us away? To steal, kill, and destroy, and to cause us to live a life that's aimless, meaning we have no purpose. We're just living, like we're just getting up to go through the motions. I'm gonna get up, go to school, get up, go to work,

come back, cook dinner, go to bed, get up, do it all over again, and that is aimless living. And the Bible says that where there is no vision, the people, what? They perish, they die, you rot up, you dry up, you fizzle out, and it's all because of this isolation. You see, pain is designed to help us to begin to identify the tactics of the enemy through isolation, but to recognize that God's purpose of allowing us to walk through the pain in our life is so that we experience the fresh breath of community, that we experience what it looks like to be around some imperfect people that might not have everything going in the exact right direction, and around some people that some of those may even be farther along the spiritual journey than me, but in my most. Vulnerable moments, in my moments where the pain is so great that I don't know if I could stand it anymore, I've got some brothers and sisters that will surround me and hold my arms up when I can't hold them up myself. In college, I was a part of a fraternity and we had this T-shirt and on the back, it had this quote that the strength of the wolf is in the pack. The strength of you and I as followers of Christ isn't in isolation, doing life all by ourself. It is in the pack. It is surrounded by other believers, followers of Jesus

that could come alongside of us and it's in that community that they help us to be able to adjust our perspective. They help us to be able to, despite the pain and the trauma we're going through, to still trust God, to still trust the fact that if he's allowing us to go through it, then ultimately he's gonna use it in our life. For in pain, it's one thing if there's no purpose behind it, but if we have the perspective of understanding that God allows pain in our life sometimes in order to position you and I to reveal some things in our life, to help us to be able to grow in our relationship with God and to help us understand the strength that we have in community, friend, it can be a game changer. So how do we do it? How do we, how do you and I ensure that the pain that we walk through, the pressure that we face in life, how can we ensure that it becomes a setup, not a setback? I think we could boil it down to this. It's kind of simple, but I think it's reality. That it could all be boiled down into the way that we choose to view our pain. Like, are we gonna view our pain as an obstacle that keeps us away from our happiness and the kind of life that we wanna live?

Or are we gonna look at our pain as an opportunity to grow closer to God? I can't help but to think that Peter, in that moment of sifting, struggled to understand why. And if he's anything like you and I in this room today, he didn't just struggle to understand why, but he probably struggled to even think that it was necessary. But what he didn't know is that there were some things in his life that were keeping him from his potential. And that God was gonna allow him to walk through some things in his life, some sifting, in order to prepare him for his future. What was Peter's future? Pentecost Sunday. It was Pentecost Sunday. It was the moment that God poured out His Holy Spirit in that upper room that empowered the disciples and empowered the followers of Jesus to live a life that was on purpose, a life that wasn't about themselves, a life that was serving to seek and to save the lost. I think of Peter 1.0, Peter before the sifting, right? Peter was arrogant and selfish. Peter allowed fear to guide and order his steps, and he ends up denying Jesus three times because of it, but then Peter 2.0 was anointed and selfless. You see, in Luke chapter 22, Peter 1.0 steps backwards in the midst of fear. In Acts chapter two, Peter 2.0, Acts two says, step forward.

Peter says, step forward. He steps forward, and friend, I don't know if you know this, but stepping forward for Peter ultimately meant he would lose his life, that God would use him in a mighty way, but at the end, of his life, they would end up crucifying him for his faith. And Peter looks at the people that are putting him through the torture, and here's what he says, it just, it blows me away, because the weak Peter that didn't have the courage to stand up for Jesus now becomes the courageous lion Peter, who stands up and says, I am not worthy to be crucified like my Lord and Savior, crucify me upside down. How could he do that? How could Peter possibly go from allowing fear to cause him to pull away and deny Jesus, to standing in the midst of the worst of the worst, like he didn't lose a job, he was about to lose his life, and he stands there with his shoulders back. He says, I'm not worthy to be crucified like my Lord Jesus, crucify me upside down. Friend, the reason why Peter was able to endure that pain, able to endure the pressure of that moment, was because he saw the pain as an opportunity, not an obstacle. How are you viewing the season you're in today? Are you viewing it as an opportunity, or have you been viewing it as an obstacle?

Towards the end of his life, 1 Peter, this is what he writes in chapter one, verse six through seven, he says, so truly be glad. This is Peter 2.0, that there is a wonderful joy ahead, that even though you must endure many trials for a little while, that these trials will show, look at this, that your faith is genuine, that it's being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Then he says, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, that it's going to bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Friend, I wanna ask you a question today. What are you walking through? What is it that you're walking through in your life that the pain and the pressure, that in moments it may not make sense, that for you, you may be kind of feeling like all you ever do is lose. It's like every day you get up and you're hoping for a better day, but it's just another day of losing and losing and losing. Maybe today you walk through these doors and you're thinking, I'm out of options. Like I'm gonna give this God thing a try, I'm gonna give this church thing a try because I've tried everything else. Maybe for you, you're here today and you're looking at the pain that you're walking through and it appears to you as a bad season, as a bad move.

Listen, I wanna tell you this, that if God allows it to you, then he's gonna use it for you. That if God, and picture this with me, if God allows the sifting to come through his fingers, then he's gonna use it ultimately for your good. So I think the promise or the encouragement for some of you today is don't grow weary. And well-doing, but instead do what Peter did. See what you're walking through today as an opportunity and allow God to turn your pain into purpose, to turn your agitation into anointing, to turn your suffering into a spiritual weapon of mass destruction. Friend, today, I prophesy over you. I prophesy over the season that you're walking through right now, that you are walking in the midst of a setup season. A setup, because God has a great promise and a purpose for your life. And the greater the pain, the greater the purpose. And so as you navigate this season of difficulty and pain, my challenge to you is to allow it to begin to reveal some things in your life that he's trying to weed out. To lean into the pain and the difficulty and allow it to grow your relationship with God. And then finally, don't allow the pain to cause you to isolate towards a setback in your life. Don't go backwards, go forward.

Lean into community in this season. Allow your church to come alongside of you, to raise your arms up, to pray for you, to strengthen you, because God has a purpose for the pain. A purpose, ultimately, for your benefit, so that you can become what he created you to be from the very foundations of the world. Amen. Hey, thank you so much for watching today's video. Hey, do me a favor really quick before you log off. Make sure you click that subscribe button below so that you can stay in the loop of new videos and new content coming out. Also, feel free to comment below what the big item or big topic was that impacted you the most today. And also, feel free to share these videos in our YouTube channel altogether so that others can benefit from the amazing messages and content that we're creating. For any and all other information that you might need about service times, locations, and our church at large, make sure you visit www.transformtlh.com. Hey, have a great day and God bless you.