God’s Purpose In the Storm - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, February 15th. When your heart is broken, seek shelter that is found only in Jesus Christ. Let's continue the series, Unshakeable Faith in Uncertain Times. The years we have been watching on the television and seeing the devastation of all kinds of storms that have just ravaged whole cities, and sometimes whole nations have been affected by it. I think about the storms that occur every single day in people's lives all across this country. Storms that are very private. Storms that are very personal. Nobody sees, nobody hears.

People don't gather around, nobody sends them money. But those storms are just as personal, just as destructive, just as heart-rending as if somebody wiped their house out. You see, there are many storms in life, have nothing to do with weather, have nothing to do with the circumstances of nature. There are circumstances and there are storms in life that just have to do with persons, their personal life, their private life. It may have to do with the loss of their finances.

It may have to do with divorce, separation, broken relationships. And so while we are very, very concerned about people who've lost physical things and material things, there's something in life much worse than that. And that's living with those storms that seem to be so prolonged they never end. Looking down that valley that seems to have no opening at the other end.

Looking down a tunnel and you don't see any light, and yet you cannot escape, you cannot walk away. It's just the storm every single day of your life. How do you respond? Well, you can respond in one of several ways. You can blame God.

You can blame others. You can get resentful, bitter, angry, wreck and ruin your life. Or you can begin to ask some questions like, what's the purpose of all of this? Is God in this? If He's in this, what good thing is there about this?

Is there anything good about this storm that I'm living in? And let me just say this to you. I want to show you in this message.

Yes, there is something good. And I want you to turn, if you will, to a verse that all of us quote rather freely, and that's Romans eight twenty eight. But I want you to notice exactly what it says. Sometimes people will quote this verse and here's what they'll say. They'll say, everything works together for good. That's not what this verse says. Everything does not work together for good. Here's what the scripture says in the twenty eighth verse of Romans chapter eight. And we know that we hope not we think we know that God causes all things to work together for good.

To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Listen, God causes all things to work together for good. Things don't just work together for good. All things don't simply work together for good. God is in the causing of the things that is of the result that they turn out for good.

But I also must respond in the proper fashion. I get bitter and anger and hostile at God. If I want to explain it all away and count God out, there's nothing good going to come out of that. But if I listen, if I see that God is in this storm in my life, no matter what it may be, if I look for His footprint, look for His handprint, if I can feel His heart, I may not be able to see His hand, how it's working in my life, but I can read His heart because the word of God says He's a good God.

He's a God of love, an awesome, loving Father. Then the question is why, what purposes are there in the fact that God allows us to go through such terrible storms, painful, deep, heart rending storms where there's loss of love, loss of finances, loss of job, the future looks absolutely dim. How can there be any good? How can God possibly be in this?

And what purposes are there? There are purposes. God is good. And if you'll listen very carefully and you'll be honest enough to look at the storm that you're presently living in, I want to show you, according to God's Word, God will cause something very good to work out of this in your life. But you have to respond properly. And that response is simply to look to Him to say, God, what are You doing in my life?

So, let's begin. And what I would like to do is to give you six simple words. In these six words, I want to give you the purposes that God has in mind, what motivates Him for allowing or sending these storms in our life. And the very first word is simply this, and that is the word cleansing.

The word cleansing because, you see, the truth is that God oftentimes sends storms into our life to get our attention. You're out of God's will. You've stepped out of His will. You're not living the way you ought to live, the way you know to live, the way the Bible teaches us to live. And because you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and made a commitment to Him and said you would live an obedient life, and for some reason or the other, whatever the purpose may be, you have chosen to live it your way. You've chosen to walk your pathway. You've chosen to do it your way, have it your way. You've chosen to live a life of disobedience.

And so what happens? Storms come into your life. And I think many of us would have to say that there have probably been some times in our life where we're just barreling it down the highway of life, doing our own thing, thinking we were doing the right thing, or maybe thinking we were, maybe the sort of self-deception.

And all of a sudden, the storm comes and we stop and look at our life and think, how could I get myself in this mess? How could I get out of the will of God? How could I believe this? How could I feel this? How could I think this way? Because you took your eyes off the Lord. You began to drift. And God in His loving kindness, seeing where you were, seeing where you were headed, and seeing what was going to happen, what could happen if He didn't stop you, He sent a storm into your life.

Painful, yes. But listen, the absolute expression of the love of God. There's a second word, and that's this. That word, when you think about what He says now, God causes all things that work together for good. Well, what's His purpose? Well, one of His purposes for sending the storm is for companionship. You say, now wait a minute. What's companionship got to do with a storm?

Here's what it is. God desires that you and I walk and live in an intimate relationship with Him. So here's what happens to us. He blesses us and blesses us, and so what happens is the very blessing He sends us, we allow to become a distraction from our relationship to Him. Think about how blessed you are today. Not just things you have, but your relationships, your home, your house, your children, whatever it might be.

Maybe your finances, maybe your opportunities and privileges. Think about how blessed you are in many ways. When our mind moves from the source of the blessing to the blessing, and we begin to enjoy the blessing and forget who the blesser is, you know what happens?

Then we misuse the blessing of God. God blesses us in order to do what? He wants a relationship with us.

God doesn't bless us just to meet our needs. He wants a relationship. He wants a relationship that's intimate, that's personal, that's warm. And so what must we do? Then we must be in His Word, for example, listening to Him, talking to Him, seeking His mind and heart about what His will is for our life. Building an intimate relationship with Him is, listen, it's the most important thing in our life.

Because everything else in life we do is affected by it. So when we get out of His will and our priorities get out of order, what happens? He oftentimes allows storms into our life that get our attention and make us, help us to understand and make us to realize we need Him. We need fellowship with Him. We need this intimate relationship. We need to listen.

We need to be loved by Him. And so what happens? People oftentimes think, I don't understand why these things happen to me. I believe when we get through these six words, whatever the storm is that you may be experiencing at this time, whatever some of those have been in the past, if you'll look back, you'll be able to recognize one of these six purposes that God had in mind. Then you have to ask yourself the question, well, how did I respond? Did I respond by saying, God, what are you up to?

Or did I find myself being, just complaining and moaning and groaning and saying, God, why do you allow these things to happen? Listen, somebody says, well, we shouldn't ask why. Oh, yes, we should. We have a right to say, God, why? There's nothing wrong with that. Why do you let this happen?

But watch this. If God is causing all things that work together for good, then listen, He's behind it. I'm not saying that He deliberately sends every storm and every heartache and every blessing, because some things we stir up within ourselves. Listen, we create our own storms. You get out of God's will deliberately, you've created your own storm. The only thing you may see right now is clouds.

But listen, when those clouds get to you, they're going to hurt. We create our own, but sometimes God sends them. And when He sends them, He sends them for a very specific purpose, one of which is to keep us clean. What is it that keeps us clean?

Getting in hot water. Gets our attention. Listen, sin causes you to have this estranged feeling from God. God knows how to put a divine loneliness in you. A divine loneliness that is sent by Him to you that you begin to feel this emptiness.

Feel estranged. And sometimes it takes a storm to shake us out of our lethargy, shake us out of our disobedience, shake us out of our backslidden condition when everything has our attention but Him. If it takes a storm, He's going to send it in one fashion or the other. Now, what we'd like to do is to have Him whisper, Oh, you're getting out of my will.

He doesn't whisper. You know what He does? He just knows every single one of us perfectly. And He knows that for some people it takes a strong wind. But for some people it takes a hurricane to get their attention or an earthquake to make them realize you're out of God's will, you're heading for destruction in your life. Oftentimes, He has to allow or send some storm in our life to get us to the place in our life where we come to that place of recognizing we've become estranged from Him by the very things that should bless us, our attention goes awry and what happens? The storm comes. We think, well, now God wouldn't send a storm into my life just to get my attention. Oh, yes, He will.

You know why? Because He loves you so much, He's not going to leave you where you are. And so, when you think about how much He loves you and the fact that, watch this, God is much more interested in shaping us and conforming us into His image than He is in my pleasure and comfort.

He's not nearly as interested in that as He is in doing what? Bringing us into this intimate relationship with Him. And number three, the word conformity, that is conforming us to the likeness of His Son. So, I want you to look, if you will, in Romans chapter eight. And let's look, if you will, in verse twenty-nine. We read a few moments ago verse twenty-eight. But listen to verse twenty-nine.

Because oftentimes we stop at twenty-eight. Now He said, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who call according to His purpose. And then He says, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. Predestined means He predetermined that something was going to happen.

So, every single believer has been predetermined by God to do what? To become conformed to the image of His Son. So, one of the primary reasons God allows or sends storms into our life is to do what?

Here's the purpose. In order that you and I would not allow the society in which we live, the music which we hear, the movies that you see, the news that you read, the voices that you listen to, the work that you do, all the things that make up our life, He sends storms into our life when He sees that we are allowing ourselves to be poured into the shape of the world. Poured into a mold that is totally unlike what He created you to be.

And so, when Paul says, therefore, he says, do not allow the world to shape you into its image. Now, let me tell you what kind of image you and I are going to have. You, listen, you and I are going to become what we gaze at most. So, if I want to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, what am I going to do? I'm going to gaze at Him. You say, well, you can't see Him.

Yes, you can. Here's how you gaze at the Lord Jesus. You begin to read the gospels. What did Jesus say? What did He do? How did He relate to people?

How did He respond to persecution and trials and heartaches and the storms in His life? When you begin to gaze at the Son of God, and you begin to talk to Him and listen to Him, and the words of the gospels, the words of Jesus begin to penetrate your heart, and you begin to absorb them into your thinking. Here's what happens. You and I will begin to act like what we focus on most. Now, one of the most powerful things in your human body is something you probably hadn't thought about. The most, one of the most powerful things in your human body, because you have a mind, is your imagination.

Everything that's ever been created on the face of this earth by man, first of all, it had to be imagined that the possibility of something could happen. Here's what happens. When you and I gaze at the Word of God, when we focus upon the Word, when we talk to the Father and we claim His promises and we get them into our heart and our mind and our soul and our very being, you know what's happening? It's affecting us.

Here's what's happening. We are being shaped into the image of the Son of God because we're thinking the way He thinks. Therefore, we're going to walk the way He walked. We're going to talk the way He talked. We're going to act the way He acted.

Why? Because that's what our gaze is. That's what our focus is. And you see, if you think about this, you say, I want to be the kind of person Jesus wants me to be. I want to be the kind of person as much as possible as He was.

Now, we can't be perfect, so let's say I want to be as much like the Lord Jesus Christ as I can possibly be. And my conduct and my conversation, my character, well, how's that going to happen? When you begin to think the way He thinks, which means that you're beginning to read what He said, absorb it into your heart, then what happens? Then the Word, here's what happens.

You break out of the world's mold and the world's been pouring you into its mold. You think the way they think. You act the way they act. You dress the way they dress. And you listen to all the propaganda and all the commercials and they have all of this bombarding of your mind and your will and your emotions and your desires and your wishes and your plans and your dreams.

Did you get those out of the Word of God or did you get those out of some book or watching television or whatever it might be? So, what does He do? He will send whatever storm is necessary to do what? To get our attention, to recognize we're more like the world system than we even realize we are. Why? Because our gaze is upon them. You think about this.

You come to church an hour and a half. Six days and twenty-two and a half hours of the week, you're hearing from other people. You're seeing other people. You're seeing things. You're listening to the world.

You find all the news and all the rest. Do you realize the kind of influence that six days and twenty-two and a half hours influence you? If you don't open God's Word, you don't pray, you don't spend time with Him, then all that influence versus one hour and a half? Is it any wonder that the body of Christ looks more like the world and that our influence is oftentimes weak because we are gazing at the wrong thing? So, what does God do?

When a nation of people lose their gaze of God, then He doesn't send just personal storms, but mighty, awesome, destructive storms to get our attention. Why? Because He loves us.

Here's the reason. Because, listen, He's prepared the best for us. He has the straightest path, the most profitable path, the most pleasurable path, the most contending path.

He has the happiest path for us. And so, when He sees us going in the other direction, what does He do? Because He loves us. And listen, the stronger the storm, the deeper the valley, the more painful it is, says something about how long I've been going in the wrong direction. And so, when I think about the fact that He wants to conform us to His image, simply because He loves us. And if you'll think about what a compliment that is, that God loves you and me enough to want us to look like His Son, to act like His Son, to be a representative of His Son, will He send an intense, painful storm into our life to get our attention?

Yes, He will. Thank you for listening to Part 1 of God's Purpose in the Storm. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.