Beyond Ourselves - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 11th. All Christians face difficulty, but they handle it in a variety of ways. Today, you'll see how responding correctly to confusing circumstances reveals Jesus Christ as the source of your strength. And I want you to turn to a passage of Scripture written by a man who understood so very, very well what it meant to be pushed to the limits of his strength and how to go beyond our human limits and endure and survive and triumph over the most difficult circumstances in life. 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 8.

Now listen to these words that he uses. He says, if you'll notice in verse 8, he says, brethren of our affliction, which means a crushing pressure. This wasn't a bad cold of the flu or somebody hurt his feelings. He was in a situation where he was feeling crushed by the pressure of this circumstance. He says, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively. Burdened excessively means he was way down beyond his capacity, he thought.

It was used in terms of a slow sinking ship, a ship that was gradually sinking. He said, that's what I felt. We were so burdened excessively, we were just sinking under it. He says, beyond our strength. That is, when he examined his own limitations and looked to see what was happening to him, he said, this is going beyond my endurance, beyond my strength. He says, beyond our strength to the fact that he says, we even despaired of life. And what he's saying there is this. From the looks of things where he was at the moment, the sentence of death had already been passed upon him. He was expecting to die in this particular situation. Now, there are many people who live in those circumstances every day.

And how do they survive? God's people, how do they survive? Well, when you look at this passage of Scripture, you have to also conclude this. And that is, that the strength required to enable us to endure those circumstances beyond our human power and strength is available in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, I know that may be a simplified statement, that the power, the energy required to enable us to face these things triumphantly and victoriously is to be found in Christ. But it is. Listen, if God did not strengthen us and empower us, listen, if the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't deal with where I have to live in a practical way, there's something wrong with the book.

Shut the thing up and walk out. But it is the adequacy and the sufficiency of the person of Jesus Christ to endure hardship and to face difficulty and hardship and trials and criticism and rejection and all the rest. This is the living Christ. He's not a dead savior in a tomb somewhere. We have a living Christ.

And the power of the Lord Jesus Christ adequate and sufficient 2000 years ago is the same adequate living Christ that is available to you and me to face any trial situation, difficulty, hardship, persecution, and keep moving in our progress and in our growth in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul is talking about. He said, he said, the sentence of death was upon us.

He said, we were at the point of despair beyond our strength. He said, even of life itself. Look, if you will, in second Corinthians 12. And I want us to notice a conflict.

What appears to be a conflict here. You recall that Paul said in Ephesians chapter six, he said, Be strong in the Lord. He told Timothy, be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, listen, it looks like a contradiction. On the one hand, he's saying, be strong in the Lord. On the other hand, he says in second Corinthians chapter 12.

Look at that. He says in verse five, on behalf of such a man, speaking of himself, will I boast, but on my on my own behalf, I will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses. He says, you know what I want to boast of?

He said, I boast about my weaknesses. Look in verse nine. He said he discovered that God's grace is sufficient to him. And he said again in verse nine, most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may dwell in me. And verse 10, he says, when I'm weak, I'm strong.

Now, what kind of double talk is that? I mean, wait a minute, Paul. On the one hand, you're commanding be strong in the Lord.

On the other hand, you're saying, but I love to be weak. That doesn't even make any sense until you understand. Here's what Paul is saying. Paul says, here's what I discovered.

It's the most amazing thing. He said, I have discovered that when I'm weak and I get weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker. He says, when I'm down here and my weakest moments, he says, here's what I discovered. It is in those moments I feel the greatest surge of the supernatural divine energy, either intellectually. Either emotionally, morally, spiritually, physically, he says, he says, in that weakest moment of my life, that's when I get the biggest surge of the power of God working in my life.

So he says, here's what I discovered. I discovered instead of despising weakness and feeling out of control and helpless, which none of us like, none of us like to feel out of control. No one wants to feel helpless. Nobody likes weakness. I don't like that anymore than anybody else.

No one likes that. But you see, here's what Paul discovered. He says, here's what I discovered. If I am willing to experience great weakness, then I can experience great strength. To the degree I am willing to be weak, to the same degree I am willing to experience strength, which says I have to deal with a pride problem because you see, no one likes to admit I'm weak, I'm frail. You see, today's world says be strong, be beautiful, be handsome, be rich, be all of these things. You know what God says?

Be poor in spirit, full of weakness, humility, and the world hates that. They can't stand that. They despise weakness. You know what God says? He says, I love it.

Now, I don't like it very well, to be honest, and probably you don't either, if you're honest. None of us like to feel weak, out of control, and helpless. But when you and I learn that it is in those weakest moments when we cannot, we're out of control, we can't do anything about it, that's when God is free to do his greatest work and empowering and strengthening us. That's when we become the most equipped, the most enabled to suffer, to experience, to do it, no matter what the trial may be, we can walk through it. Not with a sad face, not having a pity party, not complaining and moaning and groaning, though sometimes we're tempted to do that, but he says, no matter what's going on, there is a power and strength available to the children of God. And so Paul said on the one hand, be strong in the Lord, but he said, I want to remind you of something.

Here's what I've learned. The prelude to great strength is great weakness. He says the introduction, an introduction of your life into the greatest expressions of the power of God, it is always an introduction through the valley of weakness. So if you're one of those persons who can't stand rejection, can't stand criticism, can't stand conflict, you joined the wrong family when you got in the family of God.

Because that's the way it is. It doesn't mean that you have to be crude, rude and obnoxious. But simply if you and I live the believer's life and we are true to the Word of God and live by the Word of God, we are going to be criticized. We're going to be rejected, going to be gossiped about, going to be persecuted, people not going to understand us.

So what? The issue is this, not how people treat us, but how we respond to their treatment. And as we said in the beginning, for some people, they're destroyed by it and some people, they grow by it and we make the choice.

You see, you can't blame your circumstances on somebody else and say, well, if someone should have done this and someone should have done that. I'm responsible to God for my reactions to the circumstances and how the situations in life I may have to face. And Paul says, I want to tell you, it doesn't make any difference if you push to the limit and beyond the limit. He says it doesn't make any difference if you're despairing and you're absolutely hopeless and helplessly caught and trapped. He says there is a way to endure, to survive, not having pity parties and complaining and wanting somebody to feel sorry for you, triumphantly, victoriously, with a perfect abiding peace in your heart. And that is through relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be your strength and totally your strength in that situation, no matter what. Now, if someone else had said that in the scripture somewhere along the way that I didn't make a big, strong impression on us, maybe we could say, well, you know, this, that and the other about him.

But you can't say that about the Apostle Paul, because here's a man who experienced it now. If you think about the character and the nature of the strength that he gives. Listen, he says the strength that he gives to all of us, whatever we are facing, is unsurpassable.

It is unsurpassable. One of our problems is we want, we somehow, we can't believe that God would love us enough or that he's interested enough in you as a student in your classroom or you on your job to be genuinely interested enough to, I mean, to focus his divine attention upon your circumstance and provide exactly what you need for that moment, this day, that day, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year, and to keep you in that situation. We just think, well, God, why? And you see, this is the promise of God. My God shall supply what?

All your need according to his riches and glory. Listen, one of the riches of the grace of God for you and me is the power and the strength to live, to face, to endure, to survive and to do so victoriously and triumphantly. God doesn't want you and me failing in the Christian life.

We all do at times. But he wants us to learn the truths to know how to walk through difficulty. And as we said before, the only way we learn is to get thrown into it.

Most people just want you to give them a book, give them a passage, preach a sermon, got it. No, you haven't, because I've discovered in my own life many truths that I learned. I thought, well, I've got that one down. And then the Lord sends me a big test along the way and I realize, no, I don't have it down. I thought I learned it.

No. What I did is I heard it and I understood it and I believed it, but I didn't learn it. How do I learn it? By getting thrown in the fire.

That's how you learn it. Look, if you will, in Ephesians chapter 1. When Paul was writing there in his prayer for the Ephesian Christians, here's what he prayed for them.

Ephesians chapter 1, he says in verse 18. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And he says, here's another part of my prayer for you. He says, I want you to experience and to know what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us. You know what he's saying? He says the power that Almighty God, the strength that he makes available for his children is unsurpassable.

You know what that says? That Satan cannot throw anything in your path with all of his satanic power to match. Listen to this, Satan cannot throw anything in your path with all of his satanic power to match the supernatural divine power available to the believer in the person of Jesus Christ. Satan's power can't even begin to match it.

This is unsurpassing power. Does that mean there will be no tears? No, it doesn't mean that. Does that mean there will be no hurt, no sorrow, no heartache?

No. No discouragement? It doesn't mean that at all. But it means through the tears, through the heartache, through the suffering, through the trial, through the tribulation, through the hurt, through the rejection, through all of these things, through the criticism, through all of that, you will be sustained and be able to endure no matter what. That is the grace of God. That is the love of God. That is the goodness of God. And it is available, unsurpassable, adequate, efficient, available strength and power of God, which is a gift of God. It isn't something I have to beg and plead for.

It isn't something I have to work up for. He says that is the gift of God. When you receive Jesus, you got it.

And it comes in a very simple way. How do I get this strength and power released in my life? Acknowledging that I am absolutely, totally helpless. God, if you don't do it, it won't work.

You have to do it, Lord, I can't do it. The confession and acknowledgement of weakness and helplessness, and we don't like to do that. Have you been willing to say to someone, I feel so weak and so inadequate?

You see, listen to me carefully now. You can tell God that in private, but act strong in public, and I don't think it works. I think you have to say to someone. I think that there is the requirement of a humbling of ourselves to say, I am inadequate. I am weak.

And God, I can't. Listen, weakness, listen, for the growing child of God, weakness is invited. We understand the power of weakness. We understand the power of humility. I don't mean some fake humbleness. I'm talking about genuinely relying upon Him. The acknowledgement of our weakness. And just saying, God, I'm relying upon you. I cannot, you, if you don't do it, it's not going to happen. And thirdly, simply believing that He'll do what He said.

He says, my God shall supply all you need according to His riches and glory. When? When I need it. How long? Ever how long I need it. How much?

Ever how much I need. You want to know why God brings us to the point of weakness? You want to know why God brings us to the point of absolute helplessness?

This is the reason. Because He wants to bring us to the point that we have to absolutely, totally rely upon Him. And my friend, there is no greater expression of trust in God than to say, Father, I absolutely cannot, if you don't, it's not going to happen.

And what does that do? It acknowledges our weaknesses and our inadequacies. We throw ourselves helplessly upon God and we trust Him to do and to be what He says He'll do and what He says He'll be. Now, I don't know what you're going through, but I know this. You have two ways to respond. You can respond by having a pity party. You can respond by bitterness, hostility, anger, resentment. You can respond by an unforgiving spirit. You can respond by getting cynical, check out, walk away, walk out, whatever you have to do.

That's one way. But here's what you'll lose. You'll lose the awesome, indescribable experience of growing in your Christian life by leaps and bounds through the most difficult trying times of life. Or you can respond by confessing and acknowledging your weakness, throwing yourself at the mercy of God, the goodness and love of God, and trusting Him, and here's what'll happen. You'll become richer in your understanding of the ways of God, and there's no wealth in the world to match that, richer in your understanding of the ways of God. Listen, you'll become stronger in your faith in the power of God, stronger in your faith in the power of God, that His power is absolutely sufficient. And you know what else'll happen? You'll be overwhelmed in your heart at the way God expresses His love towards you, covers you with love, surrounds you with love, undergirds you with love.

This loving God who walks with you and who envelops you in love through the most difficult, trying, hurtful circumstances of life, He is this adequate, loving Lord Jesus who walks by our side as well as lives on the inside. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm telling you, I've tried it both ways, and the first way doesn't work. You can't do it in your own strength and survive. And there's a better way. If you want to become richer in the understanding of the ways of God, if you want to become stronger in your faith in the power of God, and if you want to become overwhelmed in experiencing the love of God, the way to do it is to acknowledge your weakness and helplessness, throw yourself upon God, rest in Him and trust Him to be in you and throw you everything you need at this moment in your life. And my friend, no matter what your circumstance, this I can absolutely assure you of. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is your Savior if you have trusted Him as your personal Savior, who dwells on the inside of you, will release all the power and the strength necessary to enable you to face what you're facing victoriously, triumphantly, with great joy through it all. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of Beyond Ourselves and stop by intouch.org slash 45 years to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness to this ministry. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.