Adversity - Burden or Bridge? - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, August 8th. Adversity can destroy your faith, or it can be the tool through which it is refined. Let's learn to benefit from hardship with today's life principle message, adversity, burden or bridge. Well, there are probably more people going through adversity today than a long, long time. And a lot of that is because of financial circumstances and situations. And they're facing things they never faced before.

They never even thought about losing their home or not being able to send their kids to college. Never thought about the fact that they wouldn't have all their needs met the way they'd been meeting them. Never thought about that somebody would walk in and say, we don't need you anymore on this job. Adversity comes in all forms. Sometimes it just sets us back until we can sort of get a glimpse of what's happening.

A lot of folks never get the right glimpse. And so, they just crumble under that kind of adversity. We know it either comes from either the devil or it comes from circumstances in life we have no control over. Or sometimes God will allow adversity into our life or lead us into situations that are very difficult for us. And then people respond in different ways.

Some people seem to know how to walk through it. But most people don't. And so, they get bitter and angry and resentful toward God and hostile toward Him on a walk away. Or try to take some quick way out and they want to get on alcohol or drugs or whatever it might be so they don't think about it. That never cures anything. You'd think after a while that people would think, well, you know, if alcohol and drugs cured something, then you'd have a drink and you'd be cured. Or you'd have two drinks, you'd be cured. But you know, ten thousand drinks later, they still aren't cured.

You'd think they'd catch on after a while. That things really get worse and worse and worse when you take any avenue but God's avenue when adversity comes. What really makes the difference is their attitude.

Makes all the difference in the world. And so, when a person's attitude is that they want to blame somebody else or put somebody else on the responsibility road, then things don't work out right. It's when my attitude is right that matters. And what I want you to understand in this message, I want you to understand that adversity in our life can either be this overwhelming sense of burden. This burden that is weighty, heavy, that makes us weary, tired, restless, and just worn out. Or, the same adversity can be like a bridge.

Like a bridge that leads me to a deeper relationship to God. It's all in my attitude and all in my understanding of what God is doing. So, in your own life, would you say that the adversity in your life is like a burden?

It's a heavy weight in your life and you just keep thinking, God, how much lower am I going to have to go? Or do you see it as an opportunity, as a bridge over which you can travel above those circumstances and above all the adversity that's there because you understand that it's leading you into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ? Well, the Apostle Paul is the best example in the Scripture of a person who not only went through all kinds of adversity, but who understood the most basic principles. And in this passage, if you will listen carefully, and I want to encourage you to write down these statements. It will help you, enable you to keep your attitude right, the goal right, understand what God's doing in your life, and you will have a totally different attitude about whatever you're going through, whatever that may be. So, I want you to turn to Second Corinthians chapter twelve.

And you'll remember in Second Corinthians, Paul is writing about many things, dealing with the church. But one of those things that he's dealing with here in this eleventh and twelfth chapters is his own adversity and the things he had to go through. So, what did he learn? How did he go through this?

What was his attitude? And I want us to come to this passage in a few moments just to look at all the things that he learned, that you and I can learn, that will help us face whatever we have to face in life. And sometimes people who love God as much as anybody does, they have a very, very difficult time facing some things. Now, let's distinguish between a burden and the whole idea of a bridge. A burden is that heaviness and weight that you feel when things happen to you. And there is that sense of weariness and being worn out and tired and discouraged and all the rest. And many people live under that.

They have no joy whatsoever. And so, if I can see this adversity as a bridge that God has built for me to rise up over all that, and in the same time in the most important thing, lead me into a deeper, personal relationship with Him. Whereas my understanding of Him and my intimacy with Him is much greater. Then I'll have a different attitude. And so, that doesn't mean, for example, that you're going to eliminate all the adversity in your life.

But what you eliminate, you eliminate an attitude, for example, and a response that is not helpful at all. Now, Paul in this twelfth chapter mentions something that he had to deal with, but that's just one thing he had to deal with. In other words, and he doesn't mention here in the seventh verse, all the things he's just mentioned in the eleventh chapter about specific things that he goes through. But here's what he says.

He mentions one here. And I want you to see how packed this passage is. He says, Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that He might leave me. And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, when you think about a bridge for a moment, a bridge has to be well constructed.

It won't take much weight. There are two Scriptures that build this construction of this bridge that make it possible for us to ride over to overcome all the adversities in our life. One of those verses is Psalm one-oh-three, verse nineteen. And that is, He has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.

He's in control. That's part of that bridge. The second part of that bridge is this. Romans eight-twenty-eight, My God is causing all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who call the code on His purpose.

So, with those two eternal truths, when they're interpreted correctly and we depend upon them, God builds an awesome bridge. But what I want us to look to see here is this. You're going to face adversity. The question is how you're going to face it. How are you going to respond? Are you going to respond in a way that you come out winning no matter what?

Are you going to face it in such a way that you're going to try to deny it? That's not going to work. You've got alcohol and sex and drugs, they're not going to work.

Or it's some kind of pleasure. None of that's going to work. It's how you're going to face it. Are you going to crumble beneath it? Are you going to say, I can handle it some way? Or are you going to deal with it in reality? What I want you to see in the rest of this message is this. There are some very specific truths the Apostle Paul learned that he's sharing in this passage that will help you through any and every adversity in life. So, I want you to listen carefully for your own sake, because it's going to happen.

You're going to need it. And the question is how you're going to respond. So, I won't put these in any order necessarily.

I just want to start with this very first thing. And that is he learned this. He learned that he could experience contentment in the midst of his adversity, which is what most people never learn, that he could be content in the midst of his adversity. Now, in chapter four of Philippians, for example, that eleventh verse, he says this very thing when he's writing about what's happening to him. He says in verse ten, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned before, but you have lacked opportunity. They'd been supporting him, then they couldn't be. He says, Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. Now, why could he say that?

Because he knew how to respond. Here's what he'd learned. He'd learned that he was learning something about his relationship to Jesus. And he was learning that these things were not tearing him down, but that somehow he could have contentment.

The second thing that I want you to notice here is this. He could experience God's supernatural strength in his weakness, because that's what adversity does. Adversity makes us weak emotionally or physically, whatever it might be.

It makes us weary and tired and worn out. And here's what he said. He learned that he could experience God's supernatural strength. Listen to what he says in this passage in Second Corinthians.

In verse ten, Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. For Christ's sake, he says, For when I am weak, then I am strong. Here's what he learned. He says, Here's what I've learned. I've learned that when I am at my weakest moments in my life, when I think I just can't keep going. Remember what he said? The daily pressure of the church is upon him.

The fact that they try to assassinate him, stone him, whip him. In other words, he says, What I've learned is this, when I am the very weakest, I get my greatest surge of the presence of the supernatural energy and power in my life. I can keep going. It's when I think I can't that I begin to realize, Who is my Lord? Who is my strength? What is this life within me? It is the life of Jesus. And he says, When I come to those points that I think I can't handle it, that's when I get this new, fresh awareness and energizing of Christ within me.

Energizing me and enabling me. And so, that being true, whatever he was facing, like a bridge, these truths would help him to drive right over it. And then he said he had learned the source for all of his needs. Notice what he says in this passage, beginning in verse nine, And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. He says, I've learned that my sufficiency is in Christ. He says, I've learned that whatever my need is, Christ is my sufficiency.

Knowing Him, loving Him, being loved by Him, being cared for by Him. He's talking about the supernatural energy of Almighty God coursing through His life, equipping Him and making Him sufficient to deal with any and every circumstance of life. You see, he was looking in the right direction when the adversity came.

Not looking within himself, but looking to the Lord Jesus. And knowing and having learned and learning at the same time, there was something about that relationship that made it possible for him to rise above that. And this is why, for example, also in the Philippians, he says the whole Praetorian Guard, they know I'm here in jail. And as he was chained to these soldiers and sharing his faith with them, God was working mighty miracles through his life. Because you see, he didn't give up and quit.

And he didn't say, Well, God, where are You? He was learning something. And he's learning something that he's placed in this passage. He learned that God was the source of all of his needs. And he also, listen, came to realize that he could trust in the faithfulness of God.

He could trust in the faithfulness of God. That is, that God was going to be true to his promises. And when I think about that promise, I think about what he says in verse ten. He says, Therefore, I'm well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake.

For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. He said, I know that my God is going to be faithful to keep His Word, that He's going to supply my needs, that I'm going to be sufficient in Him to face any and every situation and circumstance of life. And you see, when a person begins to question the faithfulness of God because of adversity, God wants us at that point to turn to Him and ask the question, Were you faithful back yonder? Were you faithful to keep Your Word? Did you do what You promised here when I prayed there?

What happened? That is, the truth is, if you'll think about it, God can't do anything but be faithful. That's who He is.

That's His nature. And because His nature is to be faithful to us, we can trust Him that in whatever circumstance we're going through, whatever the situation may be, that we can count on Him to be who He says He is, count on Him to do what He says He'll do, and see us through it no matter what. Then another issue that He learned here and that I think is so very, very valuable, He says He learned that God valued His service more than His desires. Now listen to what He says in this twelfth chapter, verse seven. He says, for example, Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, that was given me a thorn in the flesh, a message of Satan that torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Here's what He say.

It's an awesome, valuable lesson. He says, I've learned that from God's perspective, He knows exactly what it takes to bring me into an intimate relationship with Him. And listen, watch this, God is so desirous to bring us into that living, eternal, satisfying, enjoyable, indescribable intimacy with Him. He will overlook my desires in order to equip me to serve Him.

Here's what He said. He said, all these revelations that God has given Him, all this insight, this discernment, this understanding of who Jesus is, because if you'll think about it, you and I would know very little scriptural about how to live a Christian life just reading the gospels. It was the apostle Paul who interpreted the life of Christ and who demonstrated and who lived out the principles of Jesus taught. And he says, here's what I learned, that God is more interested in equipping me for service and preparing me to serve Him than He is for the desires of my heart. You know, we love to quote, delight yourself in the Lord, He'll give you the desires of your heart.

He will. But now think about this. He says, He saw in me, Paul says, He saw in me the potential. He saw in me what He was able to do.

He saw in me that I wanted to serve Him, and so what did God do? Instead of giving Him natural desires, what would He like? Let's eliminate jail time. Let's eliminate getting beaten. Let's eliminate being shipwrecked. Let's eliminate being stoned, and on and on and on.

Let's eliminate all that pressure He lived with. And Lord, just give me the desires of my heart. Here's what God said, You're more valuable to me than that. You're so valuable to me that I know what it takes to equip you to become the man that I want you to be.

The servant of God that I desire for you to be. And so, what I'm going to do, I'm going to allow you to be shipwrecked. I'm going to allow you to be beaten.

I'm going to allow you to be stoned because of what I know. All of this is going to contribute to your understanding of our relationship. You see, adversity sometimes is a gift.

Adversity sometimes is a blessing from Almighty God to equip us to do what God called us to do. For example, somebody walks up to you and they're very happily married, you just got a divorce, or your marriage partner just walked out on you and you begin to tell them how you're hurting and they say, Oh, I do understand. They don't understand anything of the sort. Be careful when you tell somebody you understand. Who do you want to talk to? You want to talk to somebody who's been there. Somebody who's walked through it and somebody who's survived it and somebody who still has a sense of contentment and joy and God's working in their heart.

Because you want to know how they did it. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying God so loved me. He so desired to use me. God could see ahead what was going to happen if I surrendered to Him and yielded myself to Him. He just let me and allowed me to go through all of this to equip me to be this awesome servant of God. Now, I'll ask you a question. Would you be willing to suffer in order to serve Him effectively and powerfully?

Would you or would you not? You see, we find that who we really are, we face the facts. Adversity, hardship, pain, trials, suffering, loss. In other words, all of these things are part of what people have to face in life. And the issue is this, if I take the bridge route, I'm going to come out better in every single way. But if I choose to just soak and have self-pity and all the rest, I'm going to lose the most wonderful opportunity, watch this, is not just being a servant of God, but this wonderful, intimate relationship that develops in that kind of adversity that comes no other way. Thank you for listening to Adversity, Burden, or Bridge. 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.