Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, January 31st. Does your life resemble a roller coaster? Well, the good news is we don't have to be at the mercy of circumstances. Today, you'll hear a simple principle from the Bible that can help you overcome the ups and downs of life. I'm afraid that for most of us and most Christians, the idea of living a roller coaster up and down life, off and on, hot and cold, in and out, has been accepted as the normal Christian life. This is just the normal Christian life. But I don't believe that's what Jesus taught. It's not what the Apostle Paul taught.
It is not the teaching of the Word of God. Does this mean that somehow we'll be able to stretch it all out and balance it all out? No. Does it mean that things will ultimately get better? No.
Could get worse. But you see, here's the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. That you and I have tapped into the inexhaustible resource of a supernatural somebody who is God in the person of Jesus Christ to make it possible for us to live in the midst of these ever-changing circumstances without that. So Paul says, here's the secret. So I want to say, first of all, that overcoming these ups and downs of life is a learning process. Paul said it was true for him, it's true for us.
Secondly, it is a learning process that will ultimately lead us to peace and contentment in our life when we learn to respond in the right fashion. And the Apostle Paul is saying, I've learned the secret. He says the secret is very simple. In fact, it's so simple, most folks are going to just trip right over it. So I want to give you that as a little warning right now that when I show you and when I share with you what Paul is saying, don't say, oh, it can't be that simple.
Let me ask you a question. Why would God want to make it hard? Why would God want to make it difficult? It's amazing to me how many principles people think they've tried because they've heard, listen, because you've heard something doesn't mean you've applied it. And because you've applied it once doesn't mean it works or it doesn't work. Listen, there are many spiritual lessons that we go through over and over and over again before we really grasp the truth because we listen to them against the grid of our own thinking. Well, you know, I know some folks who've tried that. That's mind over matter. That's just confession. And, you know, life just isn't that simple. You don't know my circumstances. You don't know where I'm coming from. And if you lived in what I lived in, if you've been where I've been and you'd face what I face, then you wouldn't say it's so simple.
Well, you don't know what I face. You don't know where I've been and you don't know what God's had to work in my own life. But I can tell you this, that Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 13. And what I want to share with you today, I'm here to tell you it works.
The reason I know it works is that God has thrown me in the fire enough in my life that I know it works. And he had to bring me to the place where I had to say, God, it looks like my circumstance is not going to change. No matter what I do and how hard I try, they're not going to change. And so I had to come to the conclusion of God, all right, if you never change anything, if nothing ever changes and the circumstances remain the same, it's okay.
It's all right. And that's what Paul is talking about. Writing out of a prison, he says, I want to tell you, it works.
Now, what is it? Well, look, if you will, to what he says again. I want to keep reading these verses because I want you to get familiar with the idea. Listen, verse 11, not that I speak from want, for I've learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means.
I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. Now, how many of you can say, I'm content with being weak. I'm content, I'm content when I'm insulted. I'm content when I am rejected. I'm content when I'm falsely accused. I'm content when I'm persecuted. I'm content when I'm misunderstood. I'm content when I don't have all my desires fulfilled.
I'm content when I don't have all my needs met. Can you say that? Listen to what Paul says now. Verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Look at that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, I want you to see what he does not say. He does not say, I can do all things. Paul would never boast of that. This sounds like a very arrogant statement, especially when in his own epistle in Romans chapter 12, you remember what Paul said in the 12th chapter? He said, for through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you, not to think more highly of himself than you ought to think. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That sounds rather prideful and arrogant to me. Then you recall what Jesus said.
He said, apart from me, you can do nothing. Paul says, he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, is Paul just boasting or is he giving us a secret? Here's the secret. The secret to facing all of those up and down, ever-changing circumstances of life is this.
I want to just state it and then I want to explain it. Here's the secret. Learning to bring God's power into my weakness. That's the whole key. Learning to bring God's power into my weakness enables me to be content with weaknesses, persecutions, insults, trials, difficulties, hardships, rejection, bringing God's power into my weakness. Now, I want you to learn a simple little phrase that's right here in the Scripture and you can't miss it. Here is probably one of the simplest and most profound secrets, principles to be learned in the whole Christian life. It's four words. I can through Christ.
Now, that's very simple. Here's what Paul says. We can bring the power of God into our ever-changing circumstances that seem to absolutely overwhelm us and defeat us. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And to narrow it down, the whole key here is I can through Christ. Now, what is he saying?
Here's what he's saying. Remember, before Jesus left, he said to his apostles, it is expedient for you that I go away. But if I go, I'll send the Holy Spirit. He'll be in you, with you, and upon you. So the Holy Spirit is living within us and Jesus Christ is residing within you and me through the Holy Spirit. He says, I'm abiding in you and you're in me. So we have the life of Christ within us, absolutely essential for everything that God wants for our lives.
And here's the key. Bringing God's power into my weakness enables me to function out of the power of God, not out of my weakness. And what Paul is saying in this passage here, that his presence in us equals his power through us. His presence in us equals his power through us. His presence in us equals his power for us. His presence within our personality means his power for our problems.
Paul said, I have learned this simple principle. I can through Christ. That is, based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, whereby we receive him as our personal Savior, and whereby he begins to live his life in us, we begin to respond to life's circumstances on the base of truth.
Not on the basis of my feelings. Listen, we learn to respond to life's circumstances based on the truth. What is the truth?
The truth is that Christ is living within us. The truth is that God intervenes, that God releases his power in you and me to face every single circumstance of life, no exception. The promise is that God will enable you and me in our deepest, most trying times, when we feel the very weakest in our life. When we think that God we cannot handle anymore. He says that we have the privilege of bringing God's supernatural power into our weakness, and the moment we bring his power into our weakness, God enables us to face, to stand, to be quiet, to be true, to be strong, to be established, to be patient, to be confident, to be bold, to be conquering, to be victorious over any and every single circumstance of life, no exception. Listen, if there were a single one that could defeat us, if there were a single circumstance for which God is not sufficient and will not provide adequate power for us to overcome, then God is not, he is not omnipotent. God cannot be trusted. He is not faithful. He is not reliable, and therefore our faith is in vain.
There is not a single one. Now, this is why Paul says, look, verse 11, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content. The next phrase is very important. I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. You say, but wait a minute, Paul never went through what I went through.
Then, my friend, all you need to do is to read the 11th chapter, 2 Corinthians. When this man says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in, here's the man who's speaking from experience. He knows it works. Paul says, I've learned the secret of bringing his power into my ever-changing circumstance, and therefore, no matter what's going on, he says, I have learned to be content. Now, how do we do that? That is, how is it that you and I, in these circumstances that we can't control and can't change, how is it that you and I can be quiet and content? How can we be quiet and strong and stable and immovable and at peace and confident when everything around you is blowing sky high and you are being attacked verbally from every direction imaginable?
Paul says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I'm in. Now, you see, here's the problem. We don't understand the biblical basis. Here's the biblical basis.
Here's the foundation truth. When you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, he came to live in your life. The Son of God is living within you in the person of the Holy Spirit, so you have the power of God in you.
So it's not a matter of having to get something you don't have. It's a matter of learning to use what you have. It's a matter of learning to respond to life on the basis of your position in him.
Now, think about this. Paul says, I've learned the secret, but how is it that I get the power of God in my ever-changing circumstances? Two very simple words, sum it all up. Number one, first requirement, I must submit my will to his will. And, friend, what that means is, listen, not that you give up to your circumstances, you give in to Christ. You don't give up on your circumstances, you give in to him.
You say, well, why is submission the first step? For this reason, now listen carefully. If it is, and it is the plan and purpose of God to conform us to the likeness of his Son, then some of my ever-changing circumstances may be sent to me straight from God. Some of them will come from the devil, some from others. But you see, when I submit to him and say, Lord, I yield my life to you.
Whatever you choose to send is all right. Now, listen, you say, but let me tell you something. You don't know what I've been through. It hasn't got anything to do with it.
It has nothing to do with it. If you want contentment, the first step is surrender. You say, you mean to surrender to my circumstances? I didn't say a thing anywhere about surrendering to your circumstances. I said surrender your life to him. Lord, I yield to you.
Whatever you choose to allow is all right. Now, what's your alternative? Your alternative is to fight your circumstances. Your alternative is to resist and to be anxious and upset and worried and fretful and hostile and angry and bitter and sinful and manipulative and maneuvering and weaseling your way around, none of which is going to work. So, you see, God sometimes gives us what is difficult, but when you compare it with the other, it's the easiest, just go ahead and surrender to him. Lord, I yield to you.
Whatever you choose to send is all right. The second step is just as simple. And now, Lord, I'm going to trust you.
I'm going to trust you to control all these circumstances in my life for your purpose. Now, think about it. You know what's happened? You've stopped fighting. You've stopped resisting. You've stopped running. You've stopped manipulating. You've stopped maneuvering. You've stopped weaseling around. You have laid down the old attitude of bitterness and resentment and hostility and anger and defending yourself. And you know what you've done? You've said, Lord, I just turn it all over to you, and now I'm going to rest in you.
Now, let me ask you a question. Last night when you went to bed, how many of you kept one leg off the bed and your foot on the floor? Well, if you had, I don't think you would have rested. You may have slept a little bit, but you probably wouldn't have rested very well. How many of you loaded a gun and laid it by your bedside, and all night long you heard something in the hallway and downstairs and upstairs that you didn't rest very well? But last night if you went to bed and you lay down stretched out and covered up and just relaxed, what did you do? You just rested. You trusted the bed to hold you up. You trusted God to take care of you through the night, and you slept good all night long.
Am I saying to you that life is like a good night's rest? No, but I am saying this, that our Heavenly Father, who's living on the inside of us, has enabled every single one of us by His indwelling, available power to face every single circumstance, not in our weakness, but in His power. When we learn to get God's power into our circumstances, then what happens? We were able to rest in Him, and we do that by trusting Him. Lord, listen, I get on my face before God and remind Him of how weak I know I am, how incapable and inadequate I know that I am, how insufficient to do what He's called me to do, and to remind Him that it is only by His power and His strength, by His wisdom and by His will, I yield to Him.
Lord, if making a mistake is part of building me up, then I'm willing to make one. Lord, whatever you choose to do, I choose your will and your way. I can walk out here not only in the presence of God, but in a relationship with Him whereby the power of the Spirit of God is within me to enable me to do what I know I could never do. Now, listen, that isn't limited to a pulpit.
It isn't limited, thank God, to anything. Paul says, I've learned the secret. What's the secret? I've learned to get His power in on my weakness. And where does that begin? It begins with submitting my will to Him that no matter what, it's all right.
And then trusting Him to supply the power, the energy, whatever's necessary to face that circumstance without wringing my hands and fretting and fuming and blaming and becoming hostile and angry and bitter and resentful and all the rest. Paul says, here's the secret. He says, I learned it. He didn't say, I've always known it. He said, I learned it. You know how he learned it? By being defeated. You know how he learned it? By coming to his wits end. You know how he learned it? He learned it the same way many of us learned spiritual principles, when we fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and we don't know the answer, and finally, God shows us.
Here's the answer. Now, listen, one of the purposes of a pastor is to teach the Word of God, and my goal for you is that God would teach me the truth in order to share it with you. Now, my sharing it with you doesn't make it work in your life. My sharing it with you makes it possible for you to pick up on it maybe earlier in life, and then you have to decide whether it's going to work or not.
It's not going to work unless you apply it. I wish somebody had told me that a long time ago, that I don't have to fret and fume and live on a roller coaster and live like a sailboat in a storm, that God will enable me to walk moment by moment, day by day in the inner quietness and peace and stability of His presence in such a fashion by faith that I can get His power in on whatever is going on in my life, every moment, every day, no matter what, if I'm willing to submit and willing to trust Him. Thank you for listening to part two of Overcoming the Ups and Downs of Life. 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.
