Title: God Can’t Handle… Exhibit
Text: Philippians 1:12-14 and Matthew 26:36-38
Bottom Line: God might be using your circumstances to exhibit to others how to navigate pain
Date: 2/4/18
Intro
Who I am...
Something about the day....
So great to be here with you this morning…
Tension
So we’ve been in this series for about a month now called God Can’t Handle This… Whatever this is… We’ve all had those moments where we’ve thought it sure seems like God can’t handle this… Or maybe he can, but he doesn’t want to…
If were all honest and open for a minute we’ve had those moments where we’ve thought God where are you, do you care, can you even handle this? Some of us might even been in those times right now.
We’ve talked a lot of this and I want to encourage you that if you missed a week or two, or maybe if this is your first time to church this year go to our website and watch some of the previous messages…
We are going to end this series with a short message and a question and answer time and we want to answer your questions… So what we are asking is if you have ANY question about pain/suffering let us know. We want to answer your questions. You can either email Drew at dfroese… Or write in on the connect card that’s in your bulletin and drop it in the offering bucket.
Now before we jump into todays topic let’s start off with a little poll… How many of you cry during movies? How many of you, that it doesn’t matter what happens, you will not cry… Even when you feel like it you will bite your tongue until you taste blood… Not that I’m speaking from experience… Anybody like that?
For those of you that are in that second group this topic today might a little more difficult…
Today we are going to be talking about a different aspect of pain… And I’ll be honest its something that doesn’t come naturally to me… And that’s exhibiting our pain. Sharing our pain, letting others know what’s going on…
I know for some of you you have NO problem exhibiting your emotions… You know who you are… Just kidding… Make sure this is known as a joke…
But that’s not me. I joke sometimes that it’s easier for me to get up on stage and share what’s going on inside me than it is to tell one person sitting across from me. It just doesn’t come naturally to me.
Years ago in college… Million Miles in a thousand years… Gail and I decided that we wanted to live a good story. In other words we didn’t want to settle for just an ordinary life. Not that that is bad, but we wanted to live a life that would be worth talking about. We wanted to tell a story that had to have God as the story teller because there’s no way it could happen apart from him.
So that’s what we set out to do… But I didn’t realize the implications of that until years down the road. One of the hardest pieces was to live a good story you have to actually tell it. Which might sound like a duh type movement… But that’s hard to live out. Because now not only do I have to go through whatever it is that’s happening, but I have to share what’s going on in my life. And that can be hard. It can be really really hard to share those painful things can’t it?
Whenever something happens in my life I have a choice to make… Do I want to keep it in or do I want to share it. What I’ve found for me is every time my temptation is to keep it to myself. I don’t want anyone to know. Because what if people think of me differently… What if people judge me… What if nobody can relate… What if they won’t listen and just tell me some platitude that doesn’t help… Right?
My guess is that’s most of us here this morning. Your list of excuses might look different than mine, but we still all got them don’t we…
?Teaching
I want to look at two examples in scripture of people exhibiting their pain the impact that made.
For the first example let’s turn to Phil 1:12… Now before I read this let me set up what’s going on here.
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. Philippians 1:12-14
What Paul is doing here is he is exhibiting his pain, his suffering. We read this as the Bible, which it is. But this was originally a letter that was written to a specific group of people. And in this case Paul is telling people he knows from a church he’s been too his story. He’s telling them the pain that he is and how God can and is using that. He’s not hiding his pain, he’s showing it.
He starts off with an interesting phrase. The people reading this letter know his’s in jail and they know it’s not good. When they get this letter they are expecting the worse. But Paul says all this bad stuff has actually served good.
The church in Philippi is supporting and caring for Paul. They are concerned about him. The first thing this letter is allowing them to do is know how to care for him. In other words it’s good for Paul that he shared.
But not only is it good for Paul. As Paul exhibit’s his pain he is an encouragement to the rest of the church. His actions, his story, is an encouragement to remain bold. They know that there’s a good chance they could end up where Paul is. But when they see that Paul is suffering, but his faith is stronger than ever. When they see that despite the bad circumstances God is still doing incredible things in his life. They are encouraged! They are challenged to be bold.
God can and will use our weakness and suffering to advance the Gospel. And when we share our suffering we find the support to get through it and we find that the message of the Gospel, the message of hope, the message of love, can ring louder and louder.
Paul shared his suffering so that he could be encouraged and so that the church in Philippi could see God’s faithfulness through his suffering.
Let’s look at one more example… turn over to Matthew 26:36-38…
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” Matthew 26:36-38
If you’ve been around the church in Easter you’ve heard this passage talked about before… But I want to take a different approach on this text…
Picture this… You have been following Jesus for years, like the real person. You’ve seen him do some crazy things, but still don’t really understand what’s going on… You know something is different about him, and you’ve even told him that you know that he’s the son of God….
All this leads weird night… You eat a meal together and then you go to a garden that you’ve been to a 1000 times… But you can tell Jesus is acting different… He pulls you and a few of his closest disciples away from the others. He tells you to go with him.. You all know something is up, something is different. Jesus’ voice is shaken and it’s clear something is disturbing him. But he’s God, so that’s strange.
And then he drops a bomb shell… My soul is grieved to the point of death… Wait WHAT? Jesus what do you mean? Why are you telling us this?
Jesus right now is in his most vulnerable place… We think of Jesus as perfect, and he was in the sense that he didn’t sin. But he was still human. And he was struggling in this moment. It’s in these moments where he’s human nature can teach us something.
Jesus didn’t hide what he was feeling and going through, he showed it.
This is the Gospel… That God gave up heaven and came and lived on this earth. He didn’t demand anything, rather he gave everything for the creation that rebelled against him. This right here is why I think this guy, Jesus, is worth following… Because he suffers with us. Not only does he suffer with us, he suffered for us…. He took on the pain that we had coming to us… Why? because he so desperately wanted a relationship with his creation… We see that in this passage. Jesus is taking on our burdens, our sin, and it’s hurting him.
And there’s something about the public display that Jesus chooses to go through. He could have suffered for our sins in private… But there’s something about him suffering outwardly in public, not hiding his emotions. There’s something to be learned from that…
In this moment The Disciples see his faith in the midst of his suffering… That’s what exhibiting is. Jesus is giving us a perfect picture of what it looks like to exhibit your pain.
Jesus asks Peter, James, and John to stay awake with Him while he prays… Jesus wants them to share with Him this overwhelming time of sorrow and trouble so they can support him… But it also teaches them something… What does that teach the disciples in that moment? In the moment they understood more than ever the weight Jesus was carrying. But they also saw that no matter what they were going through Jesus could sympathize with them. They see his faith and that grows their faith.
Because Jesus choose to show this suffering, to share it with others. He got support… Failed support albeit… But his suffering was also used to increase the disciples faith in that day and our faith today.
Application
Let me ask you this… Is it possible that God might be using your pain, your circumstances to show to others how to navigate their pain? Is it possible that God might be using your pain to grow someone else faith? Is it possible that God might use the pain of your past to give hope to someone currently facing the same issue?
Maybe, just maybe… God might be using your display of faith in the midst of your struggles, your suffering to grow their faith. Just as the disciples faith grew when they saw Jesus in the garden. Maybe God can take the bad things in your life and use them for something good.
You never know what God can do through you when you exhibit your pain towards others.
From these passages I think there’s two things we can pull out that can benefit us when we exhibit our pain…
It’s healing for me.
Sharing your pain doesn’t heal all your pain or make it go away. But it does start you on the healing process.
And I get it… We don’t like this… It’s uncomfortable. We are much more comfortable asking for an unspoken prayer request, or just simply not asking. But pain that’s kept inside rarely heals, it just festers. Sharing can help the pain heal… That doesn’t mean there aren’t scars. But the wound isn’t festering.
When you open up to some it shows them how they can support you, how they can pray for you… It allows someone to enter into your suffering…
Now I’m not saying we share everything with everyone one… No… Jesus shared his moment with 3 of his closest friends, that’s it. In fact I think sometimes telling everyone can be harmful. Find a few close people that you can tell…
You don’t have to tell everyone, but you need to tell someone.
When we tell someone it starts us on the process towards healing. When we keep things instead, we cannot heal.
It’s helpful for someone listening.
When I have something going in my life, specifically someone about pain and suffering I think… I’m the only one dealing with this… Everyone else either isn’t or it’s just not hard for them. So I keep it to myself.
But time and time again when I share what’s happening in my life you know what I hear… Yeah me too… I’ve been through that, I’m going through that… I’m glad you said that because I thought I was the only one.
When I share, or exhibit the pain in my life it’s healing for me, but it’s also helpful for someone else. It gives hope… It gives encouragement… It lets people know they are not alone… When it’s a pain of the past often I can share how I got through it and offer advice…
And I know… I know what’s going through your mind right now… Yeah but… Yeah but I can’t… Those excuses those reasons are coming up in your head. I know they are because they come up in my head… What will they think of me? What if the judge me? What if they won’t be my friend anymore? What if I can’t find the words… What if they can’t relate… What if they say something dumb… What if…
I get it… I’ve thought that… I’ve been there… But listen, if you don’t share it who will? Think of what will happen if you don’t… There’s someone out there that needs to the hope, the encourage, even just the support, to know that they are not alone.
Who do you need to tell? You don’t have to tell everyone, but you need to tell someone.
Spouse…
Close friend…
Life Group…
God might be using your circumstances to exhibit to others how to navigate pain. God might use your pain to increase someone else’s faith…
In a few weeks We will go further into this in the coming weeks as we look at how pain equips us… But for know I want to look more specifically at this, who is it that you need to tell? How can God use your exhibiting to bring healing for you and help someone else?
We have a culture that tells us to keep our problems to ourselves… And I think that is an extremely harmful practice. We need to let others in on what’s going on in lives, especially the painful stuff…
Years ago when I was early on in college studying to one day be a pastor I had a friend/mentor. Story Matt… In college I had a friend/mentor of sorts… At the time we would hang out and play golf or madden… But those times were more than just hanging out. We would talk about life, about working for a church, and how to follow God. He shared what God was doing in his life, the struggles he faced in the church, the mistakes he made in his marriage/ministry… He exhibited his pain, the stuff that happened to him and the stuff that he caused.
Years removed I look back now on those conversations the impact that made on me is huge. One time he shared how he sacrificed the health of his marriage so that he could get ahead at work. He shared this as he was going through the painful process of fixing his mistakes… That made an impact on a young me training to do the same thing he was doing… And when he shared that I thought I don’t want that to be me…
So I set out not to make the same mistakes… Years later once I was working and about to get married. I started to see how I could easily make the same mistake… So guess who I asked for advice from.. The person that showed me their pain and gotten through it. I asked how I could avoid it…
The impact he made on me by just exhibiting his pain is huge. I could go into all the other aspects, that’s just one, we don't have time. He could have just kept all that pain and the struggles in… He could have and honestly most people wouldn’t blame him… But listen if he had my marriage would not be in the same place it is today. My abilities as a pastor would not be where they are today. I would most certainly made the same mistakes he did. But because he opened up and shared my life is now drastically different.
Conclusion
Listen… God can do the same thing through your pain… You don’t have to have all the answers. Just share what’s going with someone else. Not everyone, but someone.
There are people out there like me a decade ago. They need you to exhibit your pain. They need someone to be real with them. And I know it’s tough… It’s countercultural… But God created us to do life together and part of that means that we have to share what’s happening in our lives.
I consciously have to make the decision all the time… Do I want to share what’s going on with my life group? With my friends? Sometimes even with my own wife… Do I really want to share this? What if they think of me differently? It’s not really going to make an impact…
I have to remind myself that I need to open up, I need to share, I need to exhibit my pain my struggles, my suffering. I’m not going to lie… It’s tough… It is… But on the other side I have found healing, I have found support, and I have found that sharing actually helps those that I tell.
And I believe that’s true for you too… I’m sure you have a 1000 reasons why you can’t share that.. But when you do you will find healing and I will bet you will find people that will benefit from you sharing it. You will find people’s faith will grow and will be impacted by what you share.
So here’s the challenge… Text someone this week and ask them if can meet up for coffee… Open up at life group and share what your going through… Or what you went through…
I know you are probably thinking… Do I really want to share this?? Do I really want to share are at group? Do I really want to send that text? The answer… is probably no… But that’s the wrong question. The better question is do I NEED to share? Does somebody NEED to hear that… And that answer.. is yes.
So find that person… Those two people… And share with them. Tell them what’s going on in your life. Or what happened in your life a long time ago. Take that story that you’ve hidden and let it out. Not with everyone, but with someone. Find that healing and help someone.
Pray…
