The Sting Of It.

This is the Truth Network.

All-inclusive. Several things we need to touch on. The title, The Sting of It. The Sting of It. And the implication here is that there's something taking place right now within the lives of so many people, so many people, that there is a sting. There's a sting coming from an interaction, a problem, a situation, whatever. And because our focus here at Running With Horses is to believe God, to pray big prayers, to believe Him for supernatural intervention, I just want to say that when you're going through some things, you do not feel, you do not necessarily feel that there's a supernatural anything other than the dragging down that you feel, the defeat that you feel, probably also condemnation, accusation, lots of other things. And so not to get off in the weeds or anything like that, but I just want to address this because I think prophetically the heart of God is reaching right now for many of you who would say that, yes, yes, I'm feeling the sting of it.

And it isn't like brief. This has been not just maybe months, but possibly even years. The sting of it has been very real to me. So we're referring to something, and again, I'm including a lot of things, but we're referring to something that you're feeling and you have been for some time and you're watching, you're seeing, you're walking through something hard and feel basically powerless to overcome it, to help yourself at all. You're feeling tossed by the waves of it, and definitely the sting of it. So seemingly you don't sense that there's relief in sight. And especially, this is why it's so hard. Here's why it's so hard. Because in light of your innocence in the matter, despite your considerable sacrifice to create a solution, to resolve the problem, to bring an end to the discomfort, you're a lot like several characters in God's word, where there just doesn't seem to be a rescue.

There doesn't seem to be a solution in sight. So 1 Corinthians 4, verse 4, the New Living Translation says it this way. My conscience is clear, but here's something you need to hear. My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I'm right. Rather, it is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.

Boy, that's a mouthful. So although my conscience is clear, I'm innocent in this matter. I've made a considerable sacrifice to bring everything to a conclusion, to a reasonable solution. But see, that doesn't prove that you're right. The Apostle Paul said the same thing.

He had the same experience. He said, you know, I can't even judge my own heart because I am more inclined to favor my opinion and my agenda than to honestly assess my heart. So although my conscience is clear, again, 1 Corinthians 4, 4, that does not prove that I'm right. Now stay with me.

This is going to, it's going to help, but right now, be really, be honest. So if I make an application personally, if you make an application personally, your right or your righteous decisions and the choices that you've made doesn't mean that you're going to be able to scamper off into freedom, protected from the sting, the ongoing sting of what's taking place. And you're not going to be free of the after-effects of someone else's wrong, for lack of a better word, someone's unrighteous involvement. Literally someone else is provoking the situation.

You're innocent in it. But the application that God wants you to make, and I'm challenging you to say, if you would like to see a supernatural outcome, divine intervention from God Almighty Himself, then most often you will need to walk this out, experience the good and the bad, ultimately humbled as the Lord examines your heart and reveals it to you. His spotlight comes on our attitude, comes on our heart's condition, and really includes that spotlight. We'll zero in on the judgments that we have made in any situation against other people, judgments of other people, other situations, other circumstances.

1 Corinthians 4, verse 5, so this is the next verse there in the fourth chapter of 1 Corinthians. So don't make judgments ahead of time. The Lord will bring the darkest secrets to light and reveal private motives. If I do not judge, if I refuse to judge ahead of time, then when the Lord does come on the scene, He will bring the darkest secrets to light and reveal private motives.

And you just have to be ready. That includes you. It includes your dark secrets. It includes your private motives.

I know that sometimes we think that those are ascribed to someone else, really the culprit in the matter, the one that is victimizing our position. But honestly, when God's judgment comes, it includes everything. It includes my darkest secrets. Those will come to light. It includes my private motives.

Those will be revealed. And so verse 5 says, so don't do that. Don't make judgments ahead of the time because the Lord will come. He will come into the situation. It is guaranteed, 100 percent guaranteed He will arrive in the midst of this situation at some point in some timing. And honestly, you couldn't do yourself a greater favor to accelerate His appearing than to become completely clean and be completely honest with Him. And you know, I find, well, this is, this is hard.

This may be hard to hear, but I want you to hear this. I find that a person who is outside of God's Word, they're not even capable of truth because anything that runs counter narrative to that, to that, that person's own self-philosophy, self-assessment and their agenda, they, it's impossible. It's sort of like being insane when you are outside of the Word of God, because I have been, and I can legitimately say I was totally out of my mind, totally crazed. Outside of the Word of God, we have no claim on sanity. We have no claim on righteousness. We have no claim on even being able to assess our own hearts.

We can't examine ourselves. Again, the Apostle Paul pointed us to that truth. And if he could say that, certainly I can. You can.

You can. God's Word must be the narrative that I follow if truth is what I really want. And boy, does the Lord have a lot to say, does His Word have a lot to say in this regard. 1 Peter 4.13 says that when I'm in these trials, I'm really partnering with the sufferings of Christ, with what Jesus experienced. And I don't want that to be like the go-to, like, yes, I'm always suffering for Jesus.

That's not it. That's not what I'm saying. But it is a factor here that there are trials that we have no control over.

We didn't cause, we really didn't. We were innocent in the thing, but still we are caught up in it. And the Lord is requiring such a high standard. That bar is so high, but listen, it is not higher than the day that He raised that bar when He was raised on that cross and He said, it is finished. Meaning that you and I can go there with Him assured of the outcome that brings His glory, even at the cost of our own flesh and our own unhappiness to some degree. So what's the conclusion of our message today? The sting of it, the sting of it. What else, what else do we need to hear to help us choose God's perspective?

I don't know if you are familiar with A.W. Tozier. His writings to cycle me and have been such a mentoring word for me. And in one of his writings, that incredible Christian, that incredible Christian, pages 122 through 124, I have read this and when I look at this, it becomes a mirror for me. And I'm going to paraphrase because it's sort of lengthy. If God has singled you out, if He's singled you out to be a special object of His grace, you may expect Him to honor you with a stricter requirement, a stricter different discipline, a more harsh requirement, a stricter discipline, more suffering than others.

He just may. If He, think about that, if He has singled you out, Tozier says, to be a special object of His grace, He may require more of you. And where is this going?

Where would that be going? Tozier goes on to say, if God sets out to make you an unusual Christian, He is not likely to go gently with you. Your requirement may be stronger compared to the work of a sculptor, Tozier says, who doesn't use a manicure set to reduce this unshapley piece of marble into something of beauty. Instead, he picks up the saw, the hammer, and the chisel, these cruel, crude tools to change something rough into something that is eternally beautiful. And I would add to what Tozier is saying, meet for the Master's use.

In other words, suitable for what He can use in our day. This is a cruel time. In every nation, in every place on the globe, no one is escaping this time of lawlessness and an upside down aspect. Like if you are innocent, you're being called guilty. And those who are guilty are being allowed to go free.

They're not being required to be held accountable. It's just happening more and more, not less and less. And Tozier says this, to do the supreme work of grace within you, it will take from your heart everything you love, everything you trust, everything you treasure. You may find that taken from you.

And Tozier goes on to say, until piles of ashes are all that remain at your feet, replacing something that was so treasured, one of your most precious treasures, or several of them. So it says in Hebrews 12, verse 11, now. Now.

So that means right now. So we know that this means we can apply it to your life right now. No chastening. No chastening seems to be joyful, seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness, righteousness that has been ascribed to those who are trained by it. See, you're being trained by the fruit of righteousness, a requirement of that fruit on your life, through your life, coming out of your life like an aroma. It's really the glory.

It's really the glory. And that's being required of you. And yes, you are helpless. And yes, you are powerless. And yes, there isn't anything you can do. And absolutely, you have no excuse.

And no, you have nowhere to shift the blame. You're standing before the Lord. What a great place to be. A great place to do the supreme work of grace in you.

This has to take place. So do the hard thing. Do the hard thing.

Grow up into all that God's called you to be. Prefer the peaceable fruit of righteousness to your own strong will and your own sense of innocence and self-righteousness. Choose the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Choose it. Pray with me. Father, we do choose today to escape the sting of this thing by choosing and preferring the narrative that you have for us and the path that will take us to the righteousness that you have in mind. To be on display for all of those around us, those that have produced the sting, caused the sting, sent the sting, have taken great joy in the sting, and we choose to lay that down and prefer instead the fruit of righteousness for your glory. That's what we choose.

Amen. In your heart and in your mind, because you have the mind of Christ, meaning you think like Him daily, your thoughts are His thoughts, and even in the night season, because of this, because of the mind of Christ in you, this sting will not go with you all the way into eternity, but rather has a season where God has put a beginning and an end, and it will end right on time at the time of His choosing. Don't lose your mind. Don't go insane.

Keep the mind of Christ with you, think His thoughts, and you will see the end of this thing. You will. Don't lose your mind. Don't lose your mind. Don't lose your mind.