Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, September twenty-fifth. If you are trying to escape your problems, today's podcast helps you change your perspective and begin to look for God's purpose in them. The series on the ways of God continues. Well, this is the series on the ways of God, and we've been talking about His ways, what motivates Him. Why does He do what He does? Why does He act the way He acts?
Why does He respond the way He responds? What motivates Him? And so, in this message today, something all of us have to deal with in our life. All of us have to deal with suffering of some kind, whether it's emotional or whether it's physical, mental, or whatever it might be. And so, when we think about the ways of God, today the title of this message is simply this, it's a series on the ways of God that allows us to suffer. And so, what I want you to do is to understand why God's words are so important to us. When we think about the ways of God, He uses our suffering. It's one of His ways.
And what I want us to understand is I want us to understand why God allows us to suffer, the length of time He does oftentimes, or whether it's a short period of time. What is He up to? What's He thinking? What is He doing? What is He doing? What is He doing? What is He doing?
What is He doing? And so, what I want you to do is to understand why God is the manifest Christ life and character in us. That is to reveal His character within us. So, think about what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who has received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and one in whom and through whom Jesus Christ is living His life. A Christian is a person who has received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and one in whom and through whom Jesus Christ is living His life. A Christian is a person who has received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and one in whom and through whom Jesus Christ is living His life.
A Christian is able to be living examples by character, conversation, and conduct of the person of Jesus Christ. That's what He's maturing us. He's taken out that stuff that doesn't belong there. And listen, one thing that gets our attention is pain. And God knows, watch this, He makes no mistake. He makes no mistake when He allows pain in our life. He never allows too much. He knows exactly when, where, how, and what method and by means of bringing pain into our life.
But He always has a purpose for it. And what does He want? Listen, since He's not here, He has you and me to live His life through us, each and every one of us. You receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Jesus Christ is living within you.
His desire is what? It's that pruning, sifting, sanding, dealing with all the things within us that make us look like anything other than Him. And you mark this down, that purity and power go together. There would be absolutely no power in your life as a believer if the heart is impure. They just don't match. It's like oil and water.
You put them in a pan and you can see the oil all comes together here and the water's over here. Purity and power. That's why every man of God who stands in the pulpit must major on a pure heart, an obedient heart, or it's just simple words that are floating out there somewhere. A pure heart is, listen, is the will of God, the desire of God, and an essential way we think. And so He sends suffering into our life to purify us. That's the will and purpose of God. And people who desire to hold onto and say, you know, you can't tell me what to do and what to watch.
No, I can't. I can tell you this, that the whole time you are living an impure life, I can tell you what's going on inside of you. There's a civil war goes on when the heart's impure. And so He's going to send enough suffering to do what? Enough suffering to show us, to reveal to us what's there that needs to go. People wonder, well, why do they suffer? Just stop and ask a question. Is my heart pure?
And you see, think about this. You may not be sick, but there's no contentment. And when you're not contented in your life, there's something missing, something awesome. Here's what contentment says. Contentment says, I am delighted in my relationship to God.
I'm delighted in my circumstance. I may not like it, but somehow I know that God is up to something good. You're never free until your heart's pure.
Never free till your will is surrendered. And so what God wants because He loves us, He wants the best for us. And so one of the reasons He sends suffering? Pure Father heart.
Another reason is this. He says in Hebrews also in that twelfth chapter that we could share in the holiness of Christ. Now what does that mean? Simply this, God's goal for us is to be like Jesus. God's goal for us is to have a pure heart. That is to share in the holiness of Jesus. How could I share in His holiness when I have sinned against God? And so we sort of try to explain it away like that.
But listen to what He says. He says, speaking of the way we were disciplined, they disciplined us for a short time and seemed best to them. But He that is God disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness.
What does that mean? And you see, when you talk about holy, people say, there's only one person who's holy and that's God. So what we do, we explain away and rationalize our lack of holiness. Jesus Christ is living in the life of every believer. Jesus Christ is the Holy Son of God, the holiness of Jesus Christ within us.
Listen, it's there. It can either be muffled, suppressed, ignored, denied, or that holiness can express itself. And so His desire is that you and I would share in the holiness of Christ, that we would be godly men and women. And you see, to talk about being godly is so foreign to the society in which you and I live because this is a sinful, wicked, vile, lustful, greedy society we live in. And Christians can be just as greedy as the lost people.
When it comes to money, anything goes. Godly people make a difference. And it is the holiness, listen, it is the holiness of the Son of God that He wants to express through us. Then what happens? Listen, when your life is holy, your conversation, your conduct and your character is holy, you, listen, you don't have to say anything. You will make an impact in people's lives.
Things will be different. And you can go through difficulty, hardship and pain. And when you recognize that God is doing what? He is expressing something within you so that the holiness of your heart will be like headlamps on the automobile, shining into the darkness and shining through the darkness.
And other people can see the light, not to brag on you, but they just see in you something that deep down inside they wish that they had. Well, when I think about all the ways that He expresses and the reasons He expresses and what He's got in mind, He has some awesome things in mind. And one of those is simply this. He wants to teach us to give thanks in everything.
Now, that's difficult to do. He says in First Thessalonians, that fifth chapter, everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And as we said before, sometimes pain can be very intense. But He says this is the will of God that you are not able to be grateful. So, when you see that, you back off and you say, Okay God.
And notice what this passage says. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now, in everything, in everything give thanks.
Watch this. Sometimes I have to say, Thank You God, I don't like it. I wish it were not in me.
I wish this were not happening to me. I don't like anything about this, God. But since I know that You're sovereign, and since I know that You love me absolutely, totally and completely, I want to thank You anyway. There are times when you have to say, Thank You God, when you don't feel it. You say, Well, now that's being a mockery.
No, it's not. When you say, Thank You God, you're breaking through that barrier that's trying to separate you from a loving God. And the confession of your mouth is an awesome, powerful thing. God, I don't like it, but I want to thank You anyway. I'm going to thank You with my lips until I can thank You with my heart. And what happens is, all of a sudden, you have this awesome sense of gratitude and joy in your heart and you can smile and laugh and say, God, thank You for putting up with me. Thank You, Lord, that You just ignored all that stuff I said. Thank You that You forgot all those complaints and moaning and groaning and asking You why. Thank You, thank You, thank You, God, that You love me too much to take the pain away quite yet.
I can be grateful for what's happening because I know what the results will be. And that is, He's looking out after us. And so, He teaches us gratitude by allowing suffering in our life. Then, of course, He teaches real character, perseverance. Listen, perseverance, steadfastness. And I love what He says in this Roman passage here because there's so many people who are quitters.
They're quitters. And I think about people who get saved and they go to church and they think, when I get saved, everything's going to change. Well, everything will change, but does that mean there's no suffering and heartache and pain?
No. Sometimes things get worse when you become a Christian. Well, I don't want any of that. Well, my friend, think about this.
A lot of times things get worse. But you know what God's up to? He's letting the suffering begin early to do what? To begin His awesome work in your life. And so, when we think about how God works, listen to what He says in this fifth chapter of Romans. He says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Now, watch this. And not only this, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character. And proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's given to us.
Now, think about this. Here's what perseverance, perseverance says, I know it's hard, but I'm going to keep going. I know they're rejecting me, but I'm not going to stop. I know that I feel inadequate, but I'm going to keep on. Perseverance doesn't give up.
We live in a society where people are so willing to give up and quit because they feel like a failure because they failed at something. You remember Thomas Edison? How many times he tried to invent a light bulb? Over a thousand times.
And when people ask him about it, he'd say, I know a thousand ways it doesn't work. Perseverance, so I want to ask you this. Is there perseverance in your life? Do you persevere in your own private Bible study? Do you persevere to read the Word of God every day? Do you persevere in your praying? Do you persevere in your giving? Do you persevere when things are tougher?
You give up and complain and moan and groan to God about it. Perseverance says, I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up no matter what. There's something about perseverance.
Perseverance builds character into your life. You're not a quitter. You don't give up.
So you missed that promotion. You're quitting and just pull up your stakes and leave or you're going to keep going. You're going to keep working at it. You see, when a person's living a godly life, God'll show you what the goal is. He'll show you what the real objective is. He will enable you in ways that you never imagined. But your heart's got to be pure, your motivation's got to be pure, and what happens? He builds perseverance.
He builds character. Perseverance is an awesome quality that God always recognizes and I think He will always honor that in some fashion. It depends on what's going on in your life and what God's up to. Then of course, He sends suffering into our life to enable us to share the sufferings of Christ.
Now, what in the world does that mean? So I'm going to go back to Philippians for a moment. You say, what do you mean sharing in the sufferings of Christ? Listen to what Paul said in this third chapter. He said that he counted more valuable than anything else, his knowledge of Christ. And he said he wanted to be found in Him, having a righteousness not of his own, but for Christ. And then he says in verse ten, he says, I want to know Him, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. Paul said, listen, he said, I want to know something about suffering because the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for me. He suffered those last three years of His life continuously.
He got crucified and all the rest. Paul says, I want to share in His sufferings. So, one of the reasons, watch this now, that God allows suffering in our life so that we'll have something, be able to feel at least something of how He suffered. Now, you and I will never be able to suffer like He suffered. But if you'll notice people who seem to be in good health and everything sort of seems to be going their way and they never suffer about anything, it's very difficult for them to be sensitive to people who are suffering. It's difficult for them to really be sensitive and caring.
They sort of want to avoid people who are suffering because it makes them feel uncomfortable. It is the will of God that you and I suffer. There's no question about that.
And let me just say this. There's a false gospel that floats around today. The false gospel says that this is the will of God for everybody, wealth, health, happiness, and prosperity. If you have faith, you'll have it all. If you're sick and you're suffering, it's because you don't have enough faith.
Do you realize what you'd miss if you were healthy all the time? If you had everything in the world, you'd know nothing about perseverance. You'd know nothing about character. You'd know nothing about spiritual maturity. You'd know nothing about the ways of God. You'd know nothing about the heart and the soul of Almighty God Himself. What a false gospel that is.
Totally false. Well, the Lord God allows and sends suffering into our life for a number of reasons. And what you and I have to ask is, I may not always understand why. I may not always understand what He's up to because sometimes it is very perplexing. But I know that He has something wonderful in mind.
One of His primary reasons for sending it is this, and that is to prevent pride in our life. And you remember what Paul said. I won't turn to that passage in Second Corinthians. He said, God allowed that thorn in His side.
He said, listen to this. He prayed three times, probably three times of long periods of prayer, and God said no. He said, my grace is sufficient for you. Now, Paul had believed what people sometimes believe today about God will heal anything. It was the will of God. And Paul said it was the will of God to allow me to suffer for the simple reason He has shown me so much truth that in order to keep me from being prideful, He just, shall we say, stuck it in my side. And no matter what I did, He left it then. And nobody knows what it was.
It may not have been anything on His side, but that was the way he described it. He said, in order to prevent me from becoming prideful. Now, one of the reasons I believe that's in the Scriptures is because of all the sins that you and I commit, the worst is pride. Because here's what it says. Every other sin we commit says I have a need, whether it's a moral sin or whatever it might be. But what does pride say? I don't need it.
I can handle it. Number one, number first, which God hates. So what does He do? He sends suffering. And when somebody tells you He does not, there's verse after verse after verse. For example, one of the reasons He sends suffering is to broaden the ministry. Now, let me just give you a personal illustration, and I say it very carefully. I went through a very difficult experience in my life that I would have thought, and most would have thought, would have absolutely destroyed my witness for Christ.
But instead, it flung the doors open. Because God knew my heart, not something that I could help, not something I could change, not something I could do anything about. But people who would not listen or watch before began to say to me, now you know how I feel. Now you know what I think. Now you know what it feels to be lonely. Now you know what it feels to be rejected.
Now you know what it feels. What could have destroyed did not. It flung the doors open. And what could have stopped the gospel of the Apostle Paul throwing him in prison, just opened the doors of opportunity for him to minister to the people he would never have reached. He'd have never, listen, he'd have never met that bunch of Praetorian guards without suffering. So remember this, there'll be people who will come to you when you're suffering, who may not pay you any attention beforehand.
God'll put a concern in their heart for you, and they'll come and God'll begin to work in your life and their life. Broadens the ministry. And it broadens it in so many ways that you and I could never really fathom all of it. But these are at least a few ways.
And then let me just mention one other. And this is it. It reveals, that is, suffering reveals the evil nature of mankind and the righteous judgment of God when His judgment comes down upon them. And this is what he's referring to in First Thessalonians, that second chapter, because there is going to be judgment for the wicked. And there will be judgment and there will be discipline in the life of God's people when we do not do what He asks us to do. And so, he speaks of that, of God's judgment. Now notice what he says. He's talking about the righteous judgment of God.
That is, it's right. And so, there are lots of reasons God allows suffering, people who live a sinful, wicked life. So, the question here is this now. All right, in light of all that, how am I to respond? When suffering comes into our life, the right response is this, Lord, what are You saying to me? Does that mean You should, You say, Well now, suppose I'm hurting so bad, I just can't, I just don't care. I just want to get out of this. Let me say this. Ask Him, Father, what is Your purpose for this?
Help me to understand. Give me patience to bear this until I hear what You're saying, understand Your purpose, and You accomplish Your will in my life. Thank you for listening to He Uses Our Suffering. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
