Skip to content Spider-Man and the Purpose of Pain - Binge Worthy, Part 2 Feb 27 · 45 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
156K followers
Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
156K followers
0:01 Binge worthy part 2. Take out your bibles again if you haven't already. Spider Man and the purpose of pain. Second Corinthians chapter 12. That's where we're going. Second Corinthians 12.0:14 I like Spider Man. Am I talking to any fans here today? Yeah. Alright. You're the most excited about Spider Man. You must be the coolest audience of the weekend. There's like so0:26 many movies that have come out. There's 8 in the last 10 years, 3 iterations, 3 different actors. I also like to say 3 different generations of Spider Man. There was the Tobey Maguire0:38 generation. Whoo. Yeah. Yeah. That's mine. That's my Spider Man. Yeah. And then I have a 17 year old son named Connor, and I I I call his Spider Man. That's that's the Andrew Garfield0:50 Spider Man. Anybody? Thank you so many. Only 2 movies for Andrew. Only 2. And and then now the newest 1 is this kid, Tom Holland. Tom Holland Spider Man fans?1:03 Yeah. They're all they're actually all in our children's ministry. I call that Jake's Spider Man, and and I was watching that movie with Jake this week, and and it's been a great week of preparation, spending time with1:14 my little boy watching these movies. Every Spider Man story is the same in how he comes to the fulfillment of his purpose. It's It's quite amazing.1:26 It's a wonderful story. Peter Parker goes and visits Oz Corp. Gets bitten by a radioactive spider. We know this story, right? Radioactive spider bites him. He goes to bed sick, wakes up suddenly.1:38 He can crush things with his hand, Doesn't need his glasses anymore. Can crawl up the walls. Goes to high school the next day. Beats up the school bully. Like every teenager's dream,1:50 right? Suddenly wake up with power and beat up your nemesis. But he has to learn. Right? He has to learn about how to properly use his power. His power can't be used just to2:02 fight his own personal problems. And Uncle Ben usually is the 1 who passes away, gives him a life lesson. The life lesson is kind of a cultural epitaph today. I'm going to start it. I'm sure you2:14 can finish it. Usually, Spider Man's movies go like this. With great power comes Bring Bring responsibility. And I was not a big fan of the Tom Holland2:26 iteration of Spider Man. Of course, tied to my Tobey Maguire days. But I've to say this last movie that is still in the theaters really powerful story. Really well done. 1 of the best movies2:38 of the Spider Man movies that I think they made. And what I love about it is that it takes a turn in a couple of different directions that actually speak to a problem that is2:50 universal. None of us are gonna wake up with secret powers. None of us are gonna wake up with superpowers. But all of us are gonna experience what Peter Parker experienced in this3:02 movie and in previous iterations, but especially in this last 1. Pain. All of us are going to experience that. And I want to talk to you on how in this movie,3:14 the latest 1, Spider Man finds his purpose through not his power, but his pain. So I'll actually change that little mantra, change that little epitaph. Here's what I want you to write3:26 down. With great pain comes great opportunity. With great pain comes great opportunity. There is a purpose to your pain, people online,3:38 people in house. There's a reason for it. And God wants to use it. I don't think this movie is fantastically well written. I'm going to spoil the movie. So if you3:50 haven't seen it, you're going to get all the secrets today. That's what you get for not going to the movies. Peter Parker is struggling with a different kind of pain in4:02 this movie and it reminded me and it led me to second Corinthians chapter 12 because we're not just gonna look at scripture. We're gonna I mean, culture, we're gonna look at scripture of course. But I think that 24:13 Corinthians chapter 12, probably Paul's most painful text to write in the Bible. It's right in the middle of 4 chapters, 2 Corinthians 10 through 13,4:25 in which he is emotionally appealing to this church to come back to himself in many ways. Paul the apostle, in case you don't know much of the Bible,4:37 dynamically, miraculously saved from hardcore legalistic religion. Acts chapter 9, Jesus shows up, stops him in his tracks, blinds his eyes, throws him to the ground,4:50 has this amazing miraculous conversion. He's blind for 3 days. A guy named Ananias comes, lays hands, heals his blindness, and he is converted to Christ. And the guy who wanted to kill Christians now preaches5:02 Christ. Amazing story. He goes all around the world bringing the gospels like the world's first Billy Graham brings the gospel to every metropolitan city in the entire5:14 Roman world. Amazing force for Jesus. And and yet there was 1 particular church that he started, that he founded, that gave him a lot of pain.5:26 The Corinthian church. The word Corinthians from these 2 books in our Bible, first and second Corinthians, comes from a city named Corinth in ancient Greece. Still there, just a remnant of what it was.5:38 Paul arrives at this city and and his typical schedule was preach 3 weeks and then leave the church in the hands of those who came to Christ and move on to another church. Move on to another city, preach 35:50 weeks, and move on. For some reason, Corinth got his heart, got into his heart. And he stayed there not 3 weeks. He stayed there for a year and a half. Pastors the6:02 church, leads the leaders, raises up elders, gets the whole system running. I mean, it really was his baby. He moves on to another church as he always did after a long stay in Corinth, and6:14 then he gets reports from Timothy and some of his partners in ministry that the Corinthian church was jacked up, messed up. They're taking each other to court. They're factional. They're divisive. They're tribal. They're6:24 getting drunk at the Lord's Supper because they drank real wine back in those days. I mean, they are exploiting the poor. They're having sex with temple shrine prostitutes in in the city, in the temple to6:36 Aphrodite. I it is a hot mess church. How many know every church is a hot mess? It's just a matter of what what Richter scale number we get in there on hot6:48 mess. Alright? Some of you are new to Waters Church. You're like, oh, man. Touch of heaven. Just give us time. We will disappoint you. Corinth was a mess. It was insider7:00 mess, outsider bad reputation. So Paul writes the letter, first Corinthians, to them. First Corinthians deals with their internal problems, and he tells them, you gotta stop doing that. You gotta stop doing this. That's7:10 not what Christians do. Come on. You're called to a higher life. Let's go. Let's shape up. Let's ship out. All this stuff. 1 Corinthians 16 chapters. And a lot of the problems are solved. But then he gets word of another7:21 problem. And that's what 2 Corinthians is written to. And the problem that he addresses in 2 Corinthians is that some guys had come into the church, some self appointed, self proclaimed celebrity7:33 pastors or, if you will, celebrity apostles had infiltrated the ranks of the Corinthian church and they started to tear the Corinthian church away from Paul and his leadership and7:45 influence. They started to back talk Paul. They started to degrade his ministry. They had ample opportunity. Paul had spent a lot of time in prison for the gospel. So they said things like, Paul7:57 can't really be called by God because look at how often he's in prison. And look at how much he suffered. And, you know, he wasn't really 1 of the original 12 that walked with Jesus. You know that. Right? Oh, when he8:08 persecuted the church before he was a Christian. So they had ample opportunity to really demean Paul's reputation to the church that he planted. I mean, is the church that he started. And they actually called themselves8:20 kind of very coordinated with this message week. They actually called themselves super apostles. I'm not kidding. So apostles and then super apostles. Super8:31 apostle. Right? And they go and they kinda upend the whole church. And the church listens to them and starts to turn on Paul. And so he has to write them another letter,8:43 second Corinthians. And and it's really the most emotionally charged letter and writing in the New Testament because Paul is seriously hurt. He's wounded8:55 by the people that he led to Christ. And I wonder who I'm talking to here today who needs to hear this, that you have that same experience because sometimes, and I want you to write it down, it's a fact9:07 about pain. It is the fact about pain. The people who hurt you the most are often the people to whom you give the most of yourself.9:19 Right? You're not gonna get hurt by the guy who flips you off because you got in front of him on the highway. Well, maybe temporarily, but you know, you're gonna get over that pretty easily. You're gonna9:31 get hurt by the person that you poured yourself into who then turned on you. You're gonna get hurt by the friend that you grew up with that for some reason never9:43 returns your texts or calls anymore. And then you find out through word-of-mouth that they're offended by something you said or did or or they hate who you voted for.9:56 You're going to get hurt not by people who are strangers. And this is something that we are I mean, it's obvious, but we need to be told. You're going to get hurt by the people you're closest to.10:09 And that's what Paul is writing about here in this passage. And that's what happens to Peter Parker in the movie. And we're gonna get there in a moment. But I want you to hear what he says here in this chapter because10:18 it's gonna sound like he's bragging, but he's not. What he's doing is he's beating the super apostles at their own game. They love to brag about their ecstatic experience, their supernatural revelations. They like to10:29 brag about their gifts, talents, and abilities. They like to brag about how they had experienced God in a special way. And Paul spends second Corinthians 11 bragging about all of his suffering10:41 for God. He's talking about his whippings and his stonings and his imprisonments and his shipwrecks. And he's like, I'm bragging about that. That's my boast because God used that. And then he gets to10:53 chapter 12 and he talks about his incredible revelation experience that he had. And so with that in mind, in that context, let's stand together and read this chapter. Let's stand well, the first 10 verses11:05 of the chapter anyway. So this is what he's talking about. Chapter 12 verse 1 Paul says, I must go on boasting though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I had a11:17 revelation from the Lord, he says. I had a vision. What's the vision, Paul? Here's what he says. Verse 2, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago just remember 14 years ago for later later on in the message. Who 14 years11:29 ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. It's a mystical experience. He's not sure. God knows. I know this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out11:41 of the body, I don't know. God knows. Now Paul is using third person here. He's actually talking about himself. And the reason why he does that is because he's saying, I don't want to take credit for this. This is11:49 something that God did. But he's really talking about himself. So he has this experience where he goes to heaven, visits heaven, comes back to earth. And then it says this. And he heard things12:00 that cannot be told, which man may not utter. And on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool for I would12:12 be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it so that no 1 may think of me more than what he sees in me or hears from me. Now this is the passage we're gonna deal with about pain. Here we go. Look at this. So to12:24 keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass12:35 me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 3 times I pleaded with the Lord about this that he should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made12:47 perfect where? In Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly, by the way, of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ12:59 may rest on me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, with insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. For when I am weak, then13:11 I am what? So many cultural euphemisms from that 1 passage. Thorn in the flesh, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Power is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient. All from13:23 this emotionally charged passage from the apostle Paul on finding the purpose to our pain. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, speak to us.13:35 Help us to hear your word and know your voice. And I pray that our eyes are open not just to culture, but more importantly to Scripture and ultimately to Jesus.13:47 Help us to see Jesus, him and him only. In his mighty name we pray and everybody said, Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. I think that Marvel Universe, the story13:59 writers are doing a fantastic job with these movies. I've to be honest with you. I was somewhat of a superhero fan, but I'm a real fan. And especially with young boys and children, it's wonderful to watch with them. But14:11 they're doing a great job telling these stories. And the reason why is not because of the power that these people experience or get, but because of how they leverage the pains of their lives. They're doing a great job14:22 telling these stories. That's what we can relate to. None of us have superpowers. I mean, we want some, but we don't get them. Right? But all of us have pain. And so they do a great job. And if you think about it, every14:32 superhero has to deal with pain. Everyone. Kyle L, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman, right, has to deal with the pain of his planet being blown up and he was, you know,14:44 extradited to the to the Earth by his parents. And what how do I deal with that? Bruce Wayne has to deal with the pain of his parents being shot in cold blood in the streets of Gotham, a city that he later goes on14:55 to save. And Doctor Strange has to deal with the pain of the accident with his hands. Iron Man has to deal with the pain of being abducted by terrorists and having his own weapons turned against him. He has to find out,15:07 How do I handle this? What is the reason for this? What's making these stories powerful is that they deal with the common denominator human condition. That is that we will experience enormous15:19 amounts of pain throughout the entirety of our lives. And if we don't find a purpose, we will be the most miserable people on the face of the earth. We gotta know how to handle pain and that's what makes for a powerful15:31 story. And can I just tell you that pain is inevitable? There's no stopping it. You don't have enough money and you never will to keep pain from happening in your life. In fact sometimes more money brings more15:43 pain. In the words of the great theologian Dickie Smalls, More money, more problems. You can't out succeed pain. Pain will come15:54 no matter how high you climb on the corporate ladder. You can't out spiritual pain. Maybe I know that a little bit better than you because I'm on the stage in church. That means I'm more spiritual than all of you.16:08 Pastors experience pain. I'm just kidding about that by the way. Don't email me. Pastors experience pain. We've experienced pain over 20 years of16:20 leaving this church, my wife and I. We have shed tears over this church. We've watched friends leave, good people leave, stab us in the back, write nasty grams about us on Facebook, curse us out, cuss us out,16:31 bitterly complain about the smallest little things, walk out the door and take people with them. We've had mass exodus 3 times in this church. Most most recently over the 2022 thousand 2116:43 debacle of the entire world. We watched people just walk out, never come back. Walk out over COVID. Walk out over all the racial tension in our country. All the divisions that are going on in our country right now seeped16:55 in the church. We watched it and we watched it take people captive and have good people who loved us turn on us. You can't out spiritual pain. You have a choice17:08 when it comes to your pain. Choice number 1, bitter. Bitterness. Just get mad. Get mad at God. Get mad at others. Choice number 2,17:19 isolate. Keep people at arm's length. I don't want to get hurt by them again. In fact, I don't want to get hurt by anybody like them. So some of you are leading very lonely lives because of the pain in your past.17:31 Some of you won't come back to church because of the pain in your life. You're still watching online. You're like, This is comfy. Well, I think there's a deeper issue there. There's a spiritual comfort that you're17:42 holding on to. You need to get over that. You need to get back in the house of God. Amen, somebody. Isolating. So bitterness, isolation. What's the third option, Pastor? Because none of those sound good.17:52 Purpose. What is God going to do with this pain in your life? I think about Jonathan Edwards, pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts. 1 of18:04 the starters, 1 the servants of God that was used to start the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening of the 1700s led countless millions of Americans to Christ's spiritual wave of revival,18:16 swept up and down the East Coast of the United States, possibly gave this country the impetus to fight the revolutionary war. That's what historians tell us anyway. He pastored for 22 years in 1 church in Northampton,18:26 Massachusetts. 22 years of faithful preaching. And on his 20 second year, they voted him out. Just kicked him out. Why? Mismanagement of funds? Adultery? Sexual morality? No. He believed that18:38 before somebody could become a member of the church, they had to make a public confession of faith in Christ. He got kicked out for that. He got kicked out for doing the right thing by the people that he served and loved18:49 for 22 years. Went out to the frontier, which at that time was Albany, New York, ministered to about 50 native Americans. The college New Jersey, College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton, called on him to19:01 become their president. And he refused and refused. And eventually, just gave in and came down and became the first president of Princeton University. And 6 months into his tenure, he died. Pain is19:12 inevitable. You can't out earn it. You can't out succeed it. And you can't out spiritualize it. It's going to happen. Find out how to deal with it. And that's what I love about this19:24 particular movie. In this movie, the last 1, Peter Parker has a problem. I I didn't watch the second 1 of the Tom Holland movies, I guess Mysterio, his nemesis19:36 in that movie, had outed him to the world. So everybody knew that Spider Man was Peter Parker. His face is everywhere. He can't go to school. His friends can't get into their college of their choice because they're19:46 associated with him. He can't get into the college of his So he's living this miserable life because he can't have any freedom and any peace and his anonymity is gone. And so he goes to Doctor Strange's house. And he19:56 asks Doctor Strange to cast a spell so that people can go back in time and forget that he was ever or they can stop Mysterio from outing him. And Doctor Strange is like, No, I'm not messing with time again. That made20:05 everybody disappear for 5 years. We're not going to do that again. And so Doctor Strange suggests a spell, a spell of forgetfulness, to cause the whole world to forget that Peter Parker was outed. So he tries it and20:17 Peter Parker kind of flips out while he's cast the spell and it mistakenly gets cast. And instead of causing everybody to forget who Peter Parker is, a worse problem happens. Everybody from all the other universes of20:27 Spider Man and all the other movies who knew that Peter Parker was Spider Man are now transmitted into this universe of Spider Man. So Doc Ock shows up20:39 and Norman Osborn shows up and Sandman shows up. They're all from the other movies. It's really quite interesting. Along the way Peter Parker runs into Doctor. Norman Osborn, the20:50 archetype nemesis of Peter Parker, Spider Man. And he's kind of lost because if you remember in the Tobey Maguire movies, he died. Now he's back to life again. Lost doesn't know who he is, kind of suffering amnesia. And21:02 it's Aunt May who convinces Peter Parker to help Norman Osborn, his nemesis. And he does. He serves him.21:14 He helps him. He brings him into his home. He tries to make him better. Tries to give him mental health. It's an amazing story. But how many know? Arch type nemesis always be21:26 arch type nemesis. And along the way, Norman Osborn gets evil again and stabs Peter and Aunt May in the back and throws 1 of his little green goblin bombs right into21:38 Aunt May's face. And tragedy ensues. Watch this. So that's where the story really21:49 begins. How is Peter going to handle the pain of losing Aunt May? Never before in any the movies did Aunt May died. She was always the stalwart of his life. Now she's gone. Then what are you going do,22:01 Peter Parker? What are you going to do? Get mad? Get bitter? Isolate? He almost makes those choices. But he's got to find purpose. And that's what makes the story so powerful. Because here's the22:13 thing. Our world is obsessed with power. Culturally speaking, our our world, our political leaders, power. Well, what's going on in Ukraine right now?22:25 There's a power grab. What's going on in your life? I bet there's a lot of people that have power over you that have made your life miserable. Do you know why? Because power alone never truly leads to22:37 anything good because there's this sinful condition in all of us that distorts the power that we're given to serve our own ends. And at some point in our lives, God22:49 saves us. If we're Christians, we're saved. But can I tell you that what he saves you from is more than hell and more than sin? Can I tell you23:01 that what God really saves you from is you? Your sinful nature that will use whatever power that life gives you for your own ends and your own achievements. And this is the23:12 beautiful grace and loving kindness of your Father in heaven. He refuses to let your own pride ruin the power that he gives you.23:25 So how does he do it? Pain. And that's what Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians. So 3 things when we're done. Finding the opportunity of your pain. Number 1, pain can23:37 keep me from pride. Notice that it can, not always. Okay? Not every pain keeps you from pride. But pain is23:49 God's prophylactic drug to keep the pride out. That's what Paul says here. He he says it so clearly twice in 1 verse.24:01 Verse 7. So he's on the on the heels of talking about going to heaven and seeing God and hearing about all the things that he wasn't allowed to tell us here on earth. He says on the heels of24:12 that experience, so, verse 7, to keep me from becoming what's the word? Conceited. Put verse 7 up on the screen. To keep me from becoming conceited because of the24:24 surpassing greatness of the revelation. A thorn was given to me in flesh of messengers saying to harass me. And then he repeats, to keep me from becoming what? Conceited. Pain can keep you from pride. Why is that24:36 important? Because pain hurts. Pride kills. Pain will be something that hurts you. Can I tell you24:48 that pride will hurt everybody around you? And I want you to put in a mental idea right now on a scale your pride and your pain. And God the Father25:00 has a wonderful knack of making sure that your pain is always heavy enough to outweigh your pride because pride will wreck your life and the lives of those you love and care about and should serve.25:12 I mean, there is anything that this war in Ukraine should teach us right now, it is this, that pride kills people. It's destroying entire civilizations. Peace loving people are having to move out and be25:24 refugees to other countries. Why? Because of the pride of 1 man. Because he wants glory. He wants this old age of Soviet glory to come back and it's hurting good people.25:37 And in a microcosm, I think that's what's happening in Americans' lives, in humans' lives. That when we make our lives about us, we trample over others for our own glory. And let25:49 that never be the testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ. Because ladies and gentlemen, we have to remember that we do not serve some king in a palace, in some glorious city26:01 somewhere on earth. No. We serve a crucified savior, a man who surrendered himself to god's purposes and was born in a manger and laid in a tomb and put on a26:13 cross and suffered and died and bled to show the world that through great suffering, God can save a lot of people. And everybody who follows Him has gotta pick up their cross and follow Him, that God will use your pain26:24 for the purposes of helping a lot of people after you. That's the church. Let us never believe that all we are in the business of doing in this church is building great26:36 buildings and having great audiences and great great atmospheres. No. The purpose of what we're doing here right now is to discover the power of Christ through suffering for the sake of others so that they might know26:48 the joy that he can bring to their hearts in spite of what they're going through. Some of you have suffered greatly. Some of you are suffering greatly right now. Do you understand that the scripture says you're called to27:00 it? The scripture says it in Philippians. You can look it up later. Philippians 1 31. It's been granted to you not only to believe on Christ but27:12 to suffer for him. I like the first part of that verse much better than the second part. Anybody with me? It's been granted on you to believe on Christ. Whoo. Yes. Amen.27:24 And to suffer. Paul says to Timothy that through many trials and tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Jesus said, Take up your cross.27:37 And then he said, Rejoice when people hate on you and name call you and persecute you and take your property. Hebrews talks about the fact that good Bible believing, Jesus loving27:49 Christians had their property taken away, had their homes destroyed, and lived like refugees on the earth. And28:01 Hebrews chapter 12 says this little moniker about them. They were people of whom the world was not worthy. They were called to a different world.28:14 And they suffered joyfully because they knew it was for a purpose. God sometimes has to bring pain to knock you down, to get you off your28:25 high horse. Some of you are like, I don't have pride. Oh man, pride is an elusive sin to see. It manifests itself in so many different28:37 ways. There's the obnoxious pride that we see in our culture, in our society, me firstism. Then there's the more subversive versions of pride. The28:49 version of pride that gets on social media and just judges people for a good hour. That's what some of you do. You get on social media not because you want to be social, you want to be more spiritual.29:01 Look at them. Look at them. Look at them. Man, I wish Facebook had a dislike button. So some of us manifest pride through our29:13 controlling spirit. This is what this is what the scriptures talk about with marriage. The problem with marriage is that both partners want to control the other.29:25 That's really the problem with every marriage ever made. And God warned us about it. After they eat the fruit, what does he he shows up, says, what you guys do? Well, we ate the fruit.29:37 Here's what's going to happen. Eve, he's going to rule over you, and you're going to try to control him. And every marriage ever since then has been29:48 baked that has been baked into the cake. This quest for power. I'm going control you. No, I'm going to control you. And and what's happened in our30:00 politics? It's not about serving people. It's about power and control. And these last 2 years have been about power and control.30:13 That's really what's happening. Pride manifests itself in any number of venues. There's another great movie you should watch on television so all the bad stuff is edited out. It's called The Devil's Advocate. And Al30:23 Pacino plays a part of the devil. And he coerces this kid from the South to come and be a high paid impact lawyer for corporate America in New York City. And little does he know that he's leading him30:35 down the way to hell, and and there's a famous refrain in that movie. And the devil keeps saying the same thing over and over again through the many venues through which he offers this this lawyer to become corrupt. And30:45 the line is this vanity is definitely my favorite sin because he can play on it any number of ways. There's even Christian pride.30:59 Christian pride. Look at me. That's what Jesus was talking about. He said, don't do your acts of righteousness to be seen by others. Don't serve to be seen. If you're serving to be seen, you're not serving31:11 Christ, you're serving yourself. You gotta post the Instagram message. Look at me. Say, Pastor, don't you put your sermons on Instagram? Yes, I do to help people. But I don't31:23 do it. Somebody else does. Blame them. But the point is sometimes we'll take a Christian thing, a godly thing, and we'll twist it to serve ourselves. And God, again, I want to remind you, has a31:35 wonderful neck to make sure he sticks the thorn in to knock you down. Because pride pain hurts but pride kills.31:46 Number 2, finding the opportunity of your pain. Pain can bring more of God into my life. Pain can bring more of God into my life. It can. Some of you31:58 are hurt right now because of a divorce, because of a failed relationship, because of a I don't know, money loss. And you're praying. Your prayer quotient32:10 has exponentially increased from before. Can I tell you that's a good thing? Here's what pain does. Pain puts you on your knees32:22 when you're really in pain. Isn't that where you go? And sometimes that's the best place to be. And you start to say, okay. Enough of this, Lord. I'm done. What do you want?32:35 Help me, Lord. And that's what Paul experienced. The thorn was in his eye. I prayed 3 times, verse 8. I prayed 3 times that God would take it away. But he said, what?32:46 My grace is sufficient. You know, some Christians like to say that God doesn't answer their prayers. Can I tell you that God answers every single prayer you pray? It's just sometimes you don't like the answer.33:02 Sometimes the answer is no. In fact, there's I said 4 last service, I'll give you 5. There are 5 answers to every prayer. You get 1 of them. Yes, which33:13 we all love. No, sometimes the answer is slow. Sometimes the answer is grow. And sometimes the answer is33:25 woah. Sometimes we've to grow up before we get it. Sometimes we've to slow down before we get it. And sometimes God's like, What?33:39 Alright. Paul gets a no. My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in weakness. You want more of God? Man, be be be right. When you pray for more of God, expect pay.33:52 Because I think about Joni Erickson Tada. Some of you know who she is. Some of you need to know who she is. She's a fabulous Christian writer. Countless books. She's ministered to millions of people around the world.34:04 She can't use any of her limbs. At age 16, she dove into a lake in 19 67, cracked her spine on a rock under the water. She would have34:16 drowned if her sister hadn't turned at just the right moment to see her floating. She was laid in the hospital bed, told she would never walk or use her hands or arms ever again, and she wanted to commit suicide. And she34:26 couldn't because she couldn't use any of her appendages. And somebody led her to a more faithful understanding of Christ and suffering. She taught herself how to paint with her teeth, putting the brush in her34:38 teeth, and she became an author. And again, countless books. And some of her books, they're the best written Christian books out there. And she writes a book called called God Weeps. And in that book, in the first34:49 chapter, she says this, quote, God always seems bigger to those who need him the most, and suffering is his tool to help us need him more. Some of you are like, proud people. And you're like,35:01 I got it. I know what I'm doing. I'm on I'm on it. And God's like, okay. And you're like, oh. And before you know it, you're like, I guess I don't. That's right. The35:13 best thing that pride does is it squashes ego and ratchets it up. God. It brings more of God into your life. And that's exactly what Paul says. I thank God for my weaknesses35:25 because when I'm weak, then his strength is made perfect in my life. If you want more of God, expect some pain to come. And I can tell you that in my own life, driven to my knees through this35:37 church, through regular life stuff, through being just a dad and a father and a husband. I mean, it don't drive you to your knees, but sometimes when you're driven to your knees, that's when you experience more of God's35:47 glory than at any other time in your life. And you experience grace. My grace, Paul says. My grace is sufficient, God said to him. Can we talk about grace for a second? Because some of you think that grace is just, oh,35:59 that's the stuff that God uses to forgive us of sins. Yes. But that's only half of it. Grace is a force in your life. I want you to write down this definition. Grace is the favor of36:10 God active in and through your life. It's the favor of God active in and through your life. It will bring more of his power at work in you. And36:22 this is what you have to understand that though you might suffer pain, the favor is coming. It's going to take that terrible test that you went through and turn it into a36:34 testimony. You're going to turn that pain into something that you can proclaim so that others can find hope in the same thing that you went through. And that's what Peter Parker has to learn in this third and36:46 final movie. And he's ready to give up. He's ready to check out. And this brings us to the last clip we're going to show. He goes to the high school roof where he hangs out to kind of just36:58 like press this button and undo this bell and give up on everything. And he's visited by 2 friends from the alternate universes. And yes, this is going to totally ruin the movie for all of you. Watch this.37:14 And a bond is formed through their shared pain and the Spider Man super friends are born and I won't tell you anymore. But do you see what happens is that37:26 shared pain is what propels them into purpose. Can I have you write this down? This pain, whatever you're going through, if this pain brings more of God into your life,37:38 it's worth it? It absolutely is. Because only through him do we understand why we're here, what we're supposed to do,37:50 and how we're supposed to live. And a lot of our problems is because we don't know why we're here, what we're supposed to do, or how we're supposed to live. But he does. And so sometimes pain knocks you down so that you38:01 seek him and you find out the truth that you need to set you free and walk in newness of life. Another guy who's very familiar with pain, his name's Job in the Old Testament. I'm going through Job38:13 right now in my personal private devotion time. Can I tell you, it's been a very dark month? This is not a happy book. 42 chapters, 38 of which are38:24 Job saying, Why? Because Job has everything taken away from him. Right? Remember, the first 2 chapters are exciting. God and Satan have this conversation. God, not Satan, brings up Job. God38:36 says, hey, Satan. Have you met Job? He's amazing. He really loves me. And Satan's like, that's only because you keep him safe. And if you take everything away, he'll curse you to his face. And God's like, you're on.38:44 Let's do it. And Satan goes down and takes away everything from Job except his wife. And you can read into that any way you want. Just 1 line in the book and she38:56 pretty much sums up why Satan left her alone. Anyway, Satan goes back. God's like, Satan cursed me. He's like, that's because you keep him healthy. He says, I take away his health. He goes down and takes away his health.39:06 And scraping pot with pottery pieces, his boils on his skin, Job worships God. Then his friends show up and for 7 days, they're silent sitting next to Job. 7 days, they're totallyShow more
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.