Rick Warren - 5 Biblical Truths on How God Turns Pain Into Purpose

Pain is a warning light that something is wrong. Okay,

that's what pain is. Pain is a warning light that

something is wrong in your life, in the economy, in

your family, in your business, whatever.

Pain is always a warning light.

Now, let me ask you, if a warning light goes

off in your car and you ignore that warning light,

does that make the problem go away? Of course, not

ignoring pain will not make it go away. It won't

fix the cause of your pain. And to ignore pain

in your life is literally one of the dumbest things

you can do. Pain is a warning light that something's wrong.

There is purpose in pain. Now, today, I want to

show you five ways that God can use any pain

in your life for your own good, regardless of the source. Now,

did you hear what I just said? Regardless of the source,

regardless of whether your pain came to you from something

good or something bad, whether you brought the pain on

yourself from poor choices or other people cause pain in

your life and you're innocent, or Satan's trying to attack

you with pain and tear you down. You know, we're

always worried about the source. No matter what the source

of your pain is, God can use it for good

in your life We're gonna look at right now. Five

ways that God can use pain for good in my life.

Here's what God's word says. Five ways God can use

pain for good in my life. Number one, God uses

pain to guide and direct me. Proverb sixteen to nine

says this. A person may plan his own journey, but

the Lord directs is steps.

The Lord direct circle.

That word directs so much the time we're not aware

of this, But behind the scenes, God is using even

our choices, both the good ones and the bad ones,

to direct our steps. God is directing your life. Job

thirty six point fifteen says this. God teaches people through

suffering and uses distress to open their eyes. Does that

ever happened to you? Oh, of course it has. God

teaches people through suffering, uses distress to open their eyes.

He guides and directs us through pain. You ever thought

about why horse riders put a bit in a horse's mouth?

Is it for the horse's comfort? Of course not.

The rider actually uses discomfort to point the horse in

a different direction. It's the rudder like on a ship,

like a tiny rudder on a boat. Sometimes it only

takes a little bit of pain to guide and direct us.

Or to read diirect this.

Paul had this to say, the believers of Corinth who

we're experiencing some discomfort and pain. Two Corinthians seventy nine.

He said, now I'm glad, not because it hurts you.

He's talking about some pain they were going through. Paul says,

I'm glad. I'm not glad because it hurts you, but

I'm glad because the pain turns you to God. That's

the first thing pain does. Guides and directs us. It

often turns us in a new direction. You know, when

King David realized that God was using the pain in

his life that he was experience to guide in directive,

David was actually grateful for his pain, and in Psia

one nineteen, verse seventy one, he says this, You know,

it was the best thing that could have happened to me,

for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.

It is good for me to be afflicted, David says,

so that I might learn your laws, I might learn

your statutes. Let me ask you a personal question. Has

God ever used pain to get your attention?

Oh? Yeah?

Has God ever used pain to me to guide you?

To guide you in a new direction? To direct you

in a new direction.

Yes. C. S.

Lewis once said, God whispers to us in our pleasure,

but he shouts to us in our pain. Pain is

God's megaphone, and it directs you, It guides you. Pain

never leaves you where it found you. So that's the

firs benefit of pain that God can use it for good.

Don't matter how bad the pain is or where it

came from. God can use pain to guide and direct me. Second,

God can use pain not only to guide and direct me.

He can use pain to God and correct me, goad

and correct me.

Now what does that mean? What does God mean? What

means to motivate?

When somebody goads you on, it means they're spurring you

onto action. Pain is a catalyst. Pain catalyzes in action

like nothing else. One of the most obvious verses in

the Bible is Proverbs twenty thirty that says this, sometimes

it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. Hello,

anybody want to give a testimony on that? Every one

of you could think of a personal example right now

in your own life where you can give a testimony

of the truth of this verse that sometimes it takes

a painful situation to make exchange our ways. Pain prompts

us to do things we'd rather put off. It prods us,

It pushes us. It goads us, It goads and it motivates.

It not just guides and directs. It goads us and

pushes us in the right direction.

You know. Typically we don't change when we see the light.

We think we do. We don't change when you see

the light. We change when we feel the heat. I mean,

let's just get real honest here. When was the last

time you decided to go to the dentist? When did

you finally go to your dentist? Was it when you

had free time?

No? Is, when you were in pain and.

The pain finally got so bad you couldn't no longer

delay or postpone or procrastinate to do something about it.

Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change

our ways. Now, pain not only guides and directs, it

gods and corrects. Do you know the difference between correction

and punishment? If you're a parent, I want you to

listen to this, particularly the difference between punishment and correction.

You shouldn't punish your kids. The Bible as you should

correct them. Why punishment is a penalty for the past.

Correction is training for the future. It's discipline is not punishment.

Discipline is training. Discipline is correction. Sometimes in life, something

bad happens, we think God is punishing us, and actually

God is just correcting us. Why because God doesn't punish

his children. Yeah, you heard me right. God doesn't punish

his children. Why because Jesus has already taken all of

the punishment for every sin on the cross. And if

Jesus took all that punishment and then God punished you,

that's double jeopardy. Every sin you ever commit has already

been paid for. So God doesn't punish you for your sins,

but he definitely does correct you. And correction is the

evidence of love. And how does God correct us? Sometimes

through pain? Hebrews twelve eight to ten says this, God

corrects all of his children, and if he doesn't correct you, then.

You don't really belong to him. See that verse.

Look at that version in your outline. If you don't

ever have any correction in your life, then you're not

really a believer. Because God corrects his own children. God

doesn't correct those who aren't his children. I don't worry

about other people's kids, but I certainly corrected mine. The

Bible says there God corrects us for our own good

because he wants us to be holy as he is.

Another verse that says the same thing as Job Chapter five,

verse seventeen. Consider yourself fortunate when God, all powerful, chooses

to correct you, just means that he loves you. So

God uses pain to go and motivate and correct me

when I'm messing up.

You remember the.

Story in the Bible that Jesus told about the arrogant

young son who asked for inheritance and advanced it before

his father had even died, took his money and went

and spent it everywhere, wasted on wine, women and song,

and he goes down to Sunset Strip in Jerusalem and

just blows everything he's gotten. Pretty soon he's bankrupt and

he's having to feed pigs to to make a living.

And that's pretty bad if you're jew. And the Bible

says that he was in a mess. But what was

it that motivated that young man in that story of

Jesus to finally go back home to his father. It

was pain, It was discomfort. Luke Chapter fifteen, verse fourteen

to eighteen. The story of the Prodigal Sign. It says

he spent everything he had and then he was hungry.

Now you know he is being motivated. He's being goaded.

Okay.

At last he came to his senses and said, I'll

go I'll get up and I'll go to my father.

He came to his sentences. Why did he come to

a sentence? Why did he come to his senses because

he was motivated? And why was he motivated because he

was hungry? Who are the most motivated salesman? Hungry salesman

made me think of when Josh was a little kid.

One time he skipped lunch at school and he came

in complaining to He said, my stomach aches, and Kay said, well.

It's because there's nothing in it.

About five minutes later, I walked in and I said

my headaches and Josh said, Mom says, because there's nothing

in it. If you want your life to go smoother,

all right, you want your life to go smoother, just

start cooperating. When God brings any kind of correction into

your life. He's not punishing you. God isn't mad at you.

He loves you.

He's mad about you, and Hebrews twelve, verse seven says, says,

let God train you, for he's doing what any loving

father does for his children. Whoever heard of a child

who was never corrected? Circle the word train and circle

the word corrected. They go together. That's the second purpose

of pain, to correct us, to train us, to go

to us and correct us. Now, how many of you

who are parents would rather not have to discipline? Well,

all of us, but how many of you? Sometimes I

have to discipline your kids anyway, all of us. God's

the same way. He'd rather not correct you. He'd rather

not have to discipline you. He'd rather not have to

allow pain in your life. But sometimes the only way

to train is through pain. To you here that sometimes

the only way to train is through pain. Aristotle once

said we cannot learn without pain. And I would say

that some things you learned you learned by being burned.

Let me give you personal testimony. In all my years

of walking with the Lord, I can tell you this,

I have learned absolutely nothing from pleasure. All the important

stuff I've learned in life I learned through pain. I

learned nothing through pleasure. I learned nothing from success. Everything

I learned I learned through pain. The man who's never suffered,

the woman who's never suffered, they don't know much because

the greatest insights on life are found at the center

of pain. You learn things there that you can't learn

any other way. But when that happens, never doubt God's motive.

He is a loving father. He is not punishing you.

He is correcting you because he loves you. So let's

review why how can God use things for good, even

the pain in my life for good? Well, he uses

it to guide and direct me. Second, he uses it

to God and correct me. Number three, God uses pain

to gauge and inspect me. God uses pain to gauge

and inspect me, in other words, to find out what's

really inside of me, to test my character. People are

like tea bags. You don't know what's really in him

to you drop them in hot water. In Job chapter seven,

verse eighteen, it says you God inspect them every morning,

and you test them every minute. Did you know that

God's inspecting you every morning and every minute? Another verse

Jeremiah seventeen ten, The Lord searches our hearts. That's inspection,

and he examines our deepest motivations, which we don't even

know ourselves.

Why does he do that?

So He can give to each person his right reward

according to his deeds, how he has lived, So how

does God inspect us and test us?

Well?

Look at the next verse on your outline, Isaiah forty eight,

verse ten. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

God uses pain to test your character. God uses pain

to test your commitment. God uses pain to test your faith.

The Bible often compares suffering to a refining fire, like

when you heat up gold to burn off all the impurity.

So it's just pure gold.

Heat burns off the impurities and silver and other gold

and precious metals. So let me just ask you right now,

if you're going through pain of any kind, are you

allowing that pain to burn off the impurities in your life?

What are you allowing pain to burn off? Self centeredness, pride, materialism, impatience.

Pain is a measuring tool. It's an evaluation tool. It

tests our character, and your reaction to pain does reveal

a lot about you. Look at this verse, James, Chapter one,

verse two and three. It says God tests and challenges. Now,

it says tests and challenges come at you from all sides.

And we know that you get tests and challenges from

all sides. And you know that under pressure, your faith

is forced into the open to show its true colors.

Don't you love that?

In the message paraphrase, he's saying, pain is a test.

It exposes the real view for you. It shows what

you really like inside. You know, image and reputation, that's

what everybody thinks you are. Character is what you really are.

Character's what you are in the dark. It's hard to

maintain an image when you're in pain. Or Shakespeare said

nobody can be a philosopher with a toothache. So has

God ever tested your character with pain?

Oh? Yeah? Oh yeah?

And so God wants to test you and when it's

painful when you say, well, I have integrity, but are

you willing to lower your stand when it's painful? You

might say I am committed, But do you want to

throw in the towel when it's painful? You say I'm

a woman or I'm a man of faith, But do

you want to give up and get discouraged when pain

comes into your life? Your faith is measured by your

reaction to pain. Your commitment is measured by your reaction

to pain. Your integrity is measured by your reaction to pain.

Your christ likeness is determined and shown revealed by how

you handle pain. Your maturity shows how your pain shows

how mature you are. What does pressure reveal about your faith?

Are you more than just a fair weather believer?

You know?

This is the reason, by the way that it took

them forty years in the desert to get from Egypt

to Israel, the Promised Land, once they had been freed

from four hundred years of slavery. You know that story

that you could walk from Egypt over to Israel in

about a month or less, and it took them forty years.

What in the world they're doing out there in the

desert being tested? And God gave them seven major tests,

and every time they failed to test, he says, okay,

one more lap around the desert. Deuteronomy eight two. God

says to the Israelites. God led you through the wilderness

for forty years, humbling you and testing you to find

out how you would respond and whether or not you

would really obey him. These are the tests. And I'm saying,

are you going through pain right now? This is a test.

Are you going through an emotional wilderness. Right now, this

is a test. God may be guiding and guiding you,

or God may be goading you, or God may be

gauging you. He may be seeking to inspect you and

find out what's really on the inside. Maybe though, your

pain that you're going through right now is for a

fourth reason. Number four, God uses pain to God and

to guide and to guard gauge. But number four God

uses pain to guard and protect me. God uses pain

to guard and protect me. And this is a wonderful

thing that we don't often realize.

Ninety one.

Verse three says this God will save you from hidden traps.

And he said, what traps, Well, that's why you don't

see him.

They're hidden.

But all around you are hidden traps that Satan has planted,

and the world is planted, and the flesh is planted,

and those traps are there. Sometimes God uses you, uses

pain to keep you from walking into a hidden trap.

He uses pain to protect you, to guard you and

protect you Joe thirty six, Verse sixteen, God has led

you away from danger, giving you freedom. Sometimes a pain

in one area keeps you from having even worse pain

in another area, where if you'd walked.

Into that it would have been a disaster.

Sometimes protects pain protects you from something worse, It prevents

you from greater harm. Sometimes pain is actually a blessing

in disguise. For instance, you get a fever. A fever

warns you of an infection or an inflammation that needs

to be dealt with. Sometimes a small pain in your

life can alert you to life threatening the illnesses. And

when you're pain in pain emotionally, you're sad, you're discouraged,

you're depressed, you're angry, you're upset, you're irritated, you're frustrated.

Any kind of emotional pain, painful emotions means something is

out of order in your relationship to God, or your

relationship to others, or your relationship to yourself. And so

sometimes God will allow pain to keep you from falling

off in the ditch. You know, the Bible says the

Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd's in the Middle East. Well,

sometimes if they've got a sheep that has a tendency

to wander off, and if it wanders off from the flock,

it's going to get eaten by a wolf pretty quickly,

And so sometimes a shepherd will intend inntionally break the

leg of a lamb that is prone to wander, Why

keep it from getting in trouble. They're guarding that lamb.

They broke the leg to guard the lamb. They did

it for protection. They did it for protection. Do you

remember the story of Joseph, How everything in his life

for the first forty years, everything went wrong. He was

painfully mistreated for years. He was he went through all

kinds of injustice. He had racism, he had a family conflict,

he had all he had people accusing him of rape,

and all kinds of things that just were He was

thrown in prison for no reason, and he was painfully

mistreated for year after year after year. But God was

guarding and guiding and growing him and getting him ready

for greatness. And looking back later in Genesis fifty twenty,

Joseph says, this about all all the pain that had

happened in the first forty years of his life. You

talking to the people who had brought on the pain,

the people who sold them in slavery. You intended to

harm me, but God intended it for good. Now let

me tell you this, friends, there are people in your

life who want to harm you. They don't like you.

They don't like you because you're a Christian, or they

just don't like you. Whatever, they intend to harm you.

But God intends it for good. And I will tell

you that in justice. In Joseph's life, there is no

greatness without pain.

You know.

Later Joseph had two sons, and one he named Manassa

and one he named Ephraim. Manasa means made me forget.

He said, when that little boy was born, it made

me forget all my pain. And then he had Ephraim,

who he said, he is fruitful, and he forgot all

the pain when.

He looked at those little babies. Here's the problem.

We can't see what God sees because God can see

the whole picture, and we don't see it, so we

get impatient. But I want to encourage you to remember

this verse John thirteen, verse seven, where Jesus says this,

you don't realize now what I'm doing, but later you'll

understand what an encouraging verse John thirteen seven. You don't

realize now what I'm doing, but later you understand. Many

times I have been through pain, and I not say that.

God was saying to me, Rick, you don't understand now

why you're going through this, but you will one day.

I want you to remember that God uses pain to

guide and direct, to guide and direct me, to go

and correct me, to gauge and inspect me, and to

guard and protect me. But there's one more way. God

uses pain to grow and perfect me. I'd use this

pain to grow and perfect me. It's possible to grow

during times of bright fair weather, but you know what,

you put down the roots and you go deeper during

the dark days of life. I could read you one hundred,

maybe one thousand letters where people would say your pastor,

I have grown more through this separation than whatever. I

have grown more through this illness. I have grown more

through losing my job and being unemployed. I have grown

more through this tragedy than I ever imagined. I have

grown more through this loss. I have grown more through

this storm because God uses it to grow and perfect me. James,

Chapter one, verse four. For when the way is rough,

your patience has a chance to grow. So let it

grow and don't try to scorn them out of all

your problems. Then you'll be ready for anything, strong in character,

full and complete. My prayer for you is that you

will be ready for anything strong in character, full, and complete.

Pain is the high cost of growth. And it's cliche,

but it's true. There is no gain without pain.

You see.

The fact is we want the quick solution, We want

the easy fix. We want the pill of the seminar

of the book that's going to change everything. Without pain,

it isn't going to happen. We want the product that's

maturity without the process, which is pain. You see, the

very thing that's discouraging you right now is the very

thing that God is using to develop you.

Right now. What discourages you will develop you if.

You'll look at it from God's point of view again, James,

Chapter one, verse four, from the Message, So don't try

to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its

work so you become mature and well developed.

I don't know what pain you're going.

Through, but I will tell you this, if you'll lean

on the Lord, you'll make it. How was David able

to write such beautiful, powerful moving psalms.

Well through all the pain he went through.

If you look at David's life, it wasn't anything but

happy most of the time. I mean, you look at

his family background. He's lonely, he's rejected by his brothers,

he's neglected, and yet most of the time, even after

he's anointed king, he's on the run and the existing

king is trying to kill him, and he's hiding out

in caves. David wrote his most beautiful words in his

deepest pain. I come back to this verse one Corinthians,

Chapter one, verse nine, where Paul says this happened when

all talked about. He gives a long list of all

things he had gone through. You know, he said, I've

been shipwrecked, I've been beaten, I've been tortured, I've been

in jail. You know, I've died and had you know,

nearly died three or four times. And he said, this happened.

All these tough things. He said, we despaired it, even

life itself. In other words, I was ready to give up.

He said, this happened so that we might learn to

trust not in ourselves, but in God. Friends, you don't

know Jesus is all you need. Until Jesus is all

you've got, where are you wasting your pain? Pain is inevitable.

Pain is not optional. Pain is a part of life.

Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional. And question I want

to ask you is the question Paul asks in Galatians three,

verse four, Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere?

You notice that when people go through tragedy and disaster

and pain, some people turn to God, and some people

turn away from God.

Why that happens, I don't know.

It doesn't seem to me to make sense to turn

away from God when he's offering you the comfort and

the power you need to make it through the time.

My plea to you today, friends, is to give your

hurt and give your heart.

To Jesus Christ.

You know, Jesus didn't come to explain away your pain.

He came to share it. And he says, come to me,

you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will

give you rest. He enters into our pain. He is

a God who suffers with us, and he's here to

walk with you through whatever pain it is. It may

be physical, you may have a chronic illness. It may

be emotional. You may have a handicap of some kind

that bothers you. First Peter chapter four nineteen says this,

if you're suffering according to God's will, keep on.

Let me stop right there.

Notice that verse. If you're suffering according to God's will.

There are some Christians who think it's never God's will

for you to suffer, that you should never have any pain,

and if you don't have any pain in your life,

it means you don't have enough faith. They are not

telling you the truth. They're lying because the Bible says

the exact opposite. First Peter four nineteen says, sometimes suffering

is the will of God. It's not like you've sinned. No,

that's what Job's friend said.

Job.

The reason you're in suffering is because you sin. God said, no,

he hadn't sinn. He was the most righteous man on

earth feet Peter four nineteen. If you're suffering according to

God's will, sometimes you're going to suffer. Sometimes you're going

to have a pain, and it's God's will. Keep on

doing what is right and trust yourself to the God

who made you or he will never fail you. He'll

never fail you. Now let me close with a little

self evaluation. Okay, I want you to just think about

what's hurting you. Think of the pain in your life

right now. That shouldn't take you very long. You need

to say this, Father, say this to God. Father, are

you using this pain to guide me? In a new direction.

Are you using this pain to goad me and spur

me into action. Are you using this pain to gauge

me to show me what I need to work on?

Are you using this pain to guard me, to guard

me from something more harmful? Are you using this pain

to grow me and make me more like you? Are

you using it to inspect me, to correct me, to

direct me to perfect me. I close again with First

Corinthians one nine. This happened so that we might learn

to trust not in ourselves, but in God. I want

to challenge you to let whatever pain you're going through

right now guide you into the caring arms of Jesus Christ.

Would you bow your head with me right now and

let me lead you in a prayer. If you've never

opened your life to Jesus Christ, are you're never sure

that you've settled this issue of am I in the

family of God? I want you to pray this prayer.

Say say this aloud in your heart, in your mind.

God knows what you're saying. Say God, you know the

pain I'm going through right now. You know the pain,

and today I realize that others may mean it for bad,

but you mean it for good. In my life, to

direct me and correct me, to perfect me, and inspect me,

to protect me from something worse. God, thank you for

being such a loving God. Thank you for loving me.

Thank you that you care about my pain. That you're

not an unsympathetic, un empathetic God. That Jesus you died

on the cross and carried the pain of my sin,

so I don't have to carry that punishment. Then, just say,

Jesus Christ, as much as I know how, I open

my life completely to you, and I give you every

area of my life, the good, the bad, the ugly,

the painful, the shameful, and I give it all to you.

And I ask you to put a new heart in me,

a new spirit, a new joy, a new purpose, a

new passion, a new happiness. I want to be connected

to you, Jesus Christ, for the rest of my life.

I want to learn to love you and trust you.

And when I go through problems, and when I go

through pain that makes no sense, help me to remember

that you said you don't understand it now, but you

will later what I'm doing. Help me to trust you.

And I commit every area of my life to you,

Jesus Christ. Now I ask you to save me in

Jesus' name, Amen,