Rick Warren - How Can I Benefit From My Pain

Hello, everybody, and what a historic weekend this is as

we move back into the new, remodeled worship center at

Lake Forest nearly two years after the pandemic started. I

want to thank you again everybody for your prayers as

I'm recovering from two surgeries, and while I'm not yet

able to stand and teach every service yet, I'm going

to be at all the services of our Lake Forest

campus this weekend. Now today, I want us to continue

with part two of our series on pain. Where is

God When it hurts? I've been thinking a lot about

pain in the last month, and I thought i'd just

share with you what I've learned about pain from God's word.

One of the most common questions I'm asked as a

pastor is this, if God is good, if God's good God,

why is there so much pain in the world. Now,

that's not exactly a new question. In fact, thousands of

years ago, Solomon asked this question in the Bible in Ecclesiastes,

chapter two, I think it's verse twenty two and twenty

twenty three. He says this, So what do people get

for all their hard work and struggles on earth? Their

lives are filled with pain? And their work is filled

with grief. Even at night, their minds don't rest. It

doesn't make sense at all. Now, if you're taking notes,

I hope you took out the message notes, and if

you're watching online, you can download the teaching notes. Right now,

I want you to underline the phrase their lives are

filled with pain, just to underline that their lives are

filled with pain. Having traveled literally all around the world,

and I've seen many of the poor situations, and been

in the worst disaster areas, and have council thousands of

people in pain, I can tell you this much. This

verse sums up what much of the world feels. Every

day is a day of pain for most of the

people in the world. Why, well, we'll be honest with you.

I don't know all the reasons there's pain in the world.

It's on my list of questions to ask God when

I get to heaven. But I do know some reasons.

The first big reason is we often experience pain because

God gave us the freedom of choice, the freedom to

make choices, the freedom to choose between right and wrong,

good and bad. That's not only our greatest blessing, it's

also our greatest liability too, because we often make poor choices,

and when we make poor choices, we hurt ourselves and

we heard others. Now, God could easily wipe out all

of the pain in the world by simply eliminating evil.

But if he did that, he'd have to wipe us

out too, because every one of us have acted in

evil ways. We act in selfish and self absorbed and

self centered rebellion against God literally every day of our lives.

So there was no pain in the world until sin

entered the world. It broke everything, and along with it

came pain. There was no pain in the garden of Eden. Yes,

God could eliminate all the hurt and all the pain

in the world by simply removing our freedom to make

bad choices.

But you know then we wouldn't be people anymore. We'd

be puppets.

Now, in part one of this series, I gave you

a practical definition of pain, and I said, this pain

is a warning light that something is wrong. Pain is

a warning light that something is wrong. And if we

didn't have that warning light, we would often continue in

the wrong direction and continue to hurt ourselves. For instance,

if you didn't feel pain when you touched a hot stove.

Then you wouldn't know to remove your hand and it

would probably just burn up and you could lose your

hand without even knowing it if you didn't have pain sensations.

Pain says stop it, Pain says don't do this. Pain

is a warning sign. Now, last week, in part one,

I shared from God's word five ways that God tells

us how he can use pain in our lives for good.

He can use it for a good purpose. And if

you miss that message, I want to ask you to

go back and watch it online either at saddleback dot

com or pastorick dot com because it's half of what

I'm teaching you on the meaning of pain. Part one

we looked at how God uses pain for good five

ways in your life, and I'm not going to cover

that again, but today in part two, I want to

share how you can benefit from pain by the choices

that you make by choosing the way you respond to pain. See,

God says I can bring good out of it by

doing these things, and he gives us five good reasons.

And he also says, here are five choices that you

can make that will help pain be beneficial in your life. Now,

in that first message, I pointed out that pain is inevitable. Okay,

it's inevitable, It is not optional. You can't opt out

of it. Nobody gets to go through life pain free. Now,

when I talk about pain, we're not just talking about

physical pain, like the kind I've been going through for

the last month. But we're talking about every kind of pain,

emotional pain, mental pain, of relational pain, for spiritual pain,

financial pain, vocational pain, pain at work. Because we live

in a broken world where nothing works, nothing works perfectly,

everything's broken, then pain is inevitable. But as I said

last week, pain is inevitable, misery is optional. That's choice,

because you do have choices that you can make. You

can choose how you're going to respond to pain. And

that's part of being a huge that's part of being

made in the image of God. That's part of the gift.

The downside is we have pain. The upside is God

says you get to choose what you do with it,

and you can actually use it for good in your

own life if you'll let me do what I want

to do and if you'll make the right kind of choices. Now,

because we have that ability, what it means is this,

this is what I want to talk about today. We

don't have to waste our pain. We don't have to

waste our pain. God doesn't want you to waste any

of the pain. You're going to go through pain, whether

you waste it or not, but you may as well

use it for good. You can benefit from it, and

through the choices that we make, we can come out

on the other side of pain being better, not merely bitter. Now,

I've done a lot of study in pain over the decades,

and I've seen many, many scientific studies that have documented

the fact that human beings are able to handle enormous

amounts of pain. If here's the if, the big if.

If we know there's a good purpose behind it, there's

a good purpose for our pain, and then we can

benefit from the pain. But if we don't make the

right choices, the pain in our lives ends up being worthless.

It ends up being wasted, it ends up being pointless.

It is pain without any purpose, and pain without purpose,

pointless pain, arbitrary pain, unexplained, irrational, not benefiting from it.

Pain.

That's the kind of pain that's unbearable and intolerable, and

it drives us to despair. On the other hand. When

you know there's a purpose, you can handle an enormous

amount of pain. Every mother knows that giving birth is painful.

If you want to ask mom after the service, go

right ahead. It's why if they call it labor. But

mothers willingly go through that pain, the pain of labor,

for a purpose that's greater than the pain.

And what is that purpose? To bring forth life?

Now, if I were able to ask all of you

moms who are watching right now, how many of you

would say that the pain of childbirth was worth it

your all your hands would go up. And if I

asked how many of you would want to experience that

pain for no purpose at all, no hand.

Would go up.

Okay, I recently agreed to a very painful surgery and

recovery because I believed that the purpose of the surgery

was worth the pain. Now here's the point that I'm

trying to make. No matter what kind of pain you're

going through right now, you're going to be far better

prepared to handle it and cope with it if you

focus on what I'm about to share with you, the

five possible purposes for your pain. Now, I shared that

last week God's five purposes for your pain and the

five potential benefits of your pain that I want to

share with you today. Now we're going to begin with

Romans chapter eight, verse twenty eight. It's one of the great,

most famous verses in the Bible, one of the great

promises of the Bible. In Romans eight twenty eight, you've

got this memorized. We know that in all things, God

works for the good of those who love Him, who've

been called according to his purpose. Now look at let's

hold it there for just a minute. Look at that verse.

We know that in all things, not some things. All

that means even the painful things, God works. Doesn't say

all things are good, doesn't say all things are pleasant.

God works for those who love Him who've been called

according to his purpose. And it only makes sense when

you understand the purpose. What I want to share with

you this weekend is this that you're going through, whatever

you're going through right now, at work, at home, in

your body, in your mind, in your relationships, pain can

be managed by purpose, Pain can be managed on purpose,

and pain can be managed for a purpose. Now, if

you've read the Purpose Driven Life Book, you know that

the Bible tells us that God has five purposes.

For your life.

And these five purposes are repeated and they are reinforced

hundreds of time in the scripture. It's not like God's

hidden this out and only put it in one place.

At scripture. God has five purposes for your life. Let's

review it. Number one. God's first purpose for your life

is to know and love Him, to get to know

and love him. He gave you the capacity to know

and love him. You are planned for God's pleasure. You

were made to be loved by God. You're created as

an object of God to be loved by God. God

knows everything about you and loves you. He wants you

to know and love him back by the way that's

called worship. Worship is getting to know and loving God.

The second purpose of your life is to learn to

love other people. You are formed for God's family. We

call that fellowship. God says, I don't want you to

just love me. I want you to learn to love

other people as well. This is the great commandment. Love

God with all your heart. Worship, love your neighbors, yourself fellowship.

The third purpose for your life is to grow up

spiritually like Christ. You were created to become like Christ.

You're born again. But God doesn't want you to stay

a baby. He wants you to grow up spiritually and

be like your older brother Jesus Christ. You're created to

become like him. We call that discipleship. That's the third purpose.

To know and love Christ, to learn to love his

family and other people, to grow in Christ in character.

The fourth purpose of your life is to use the

talents that God put in you to serve others. You

are shaped for service. You are made for a ministry.

This is called your ministry and it's the fourth purpose

of your life. God didn't put you on earth just

to suck up air and live for yourself. He wants

you to make a contribution with your life in this world.

He wants you to leave the world a better place.

He wants you to make a difference in your part

of the world. And the fifth purpose for your life

is to share your life message with others. Part of

that life message we all share in common. It's called

the good News. But part of your life message is

the message that God has given you about what you've

learned through pain, what you've learned through experiences. You are

made for a mission. This is called witness. So whether

we call it worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and witness, or

whether we call it know in Christ, growing in Christ,

serving Christ, sharing Christ, you know, growing in Christ, loving

Christ's family. It's all the same five purposes. Now, that's

all review. If you've been around saddleback, we've covered that many, many,

many times. But what many people don't understand is this,

and I want you to get this. Are you ready?

God uses pain to help us fulfill all five of

those life purposes, every one of those purposes, worship, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, evangelism, outreach,

whatever you call it. God uses pain to help you

fulfill each of your life purposes. Now, sadly, most people

don't know this. Most people waste their suffering. They don't

profit from their problems. They don't learn from their losses.

They don't harvest their hurts. They don't improve from their injuries,

they don't advance from their adversity. They don't gain from

their pain. And this is why Saint Paul asked the

question in Galatians three, verse four, your outline? Have you

gone through all of this for nothing? Is it all

really for nothing? Now let me review you again. You're

gonna have pain in your life. The issue is are

you gonna waste it? Let me ask you, up to

this point in your life, have you wasted the pain

in your life?

He said, well, I don't know. I may have.

Well, it's not too late to start benefiting. You're not

through with pain. You're gonna have pain in the future

in your life, so it's not too late to start

benefiting from it. So today, let's look at five ways

to benefit from any kind of pain, emotional, relational. All

of these different or physical, And these are choices or

actions that you can take, and they're all found right

here in God's word. All right, you're taking notes. Here's

the five ways you can benefit from your own pain

if you'll make these choices. Number one, use my pain

to draw closer to God in worship. Use my pain

to draw closer to God in worship. Now you know

that when anything happens painful in your life, you've got

a choice. You can run to God or you can

run from God. And you know what I've noticed in life,

about half people do both. Half people run toward God

when they're in pain, and about half people run away

from God in pain. Now, the second way never seem

to make sense, because how are you going to get

any comfort when you're running from God. You know that

when you're in pain, your prayers get more real, your

worship gets more real, your your heart gets more tender. Personally,

I've spent more time alone with God in the years

since my young son, my youngest son died by taking

his life than in all the previous years, because in

the grief of that law, what kept me going through

all my painful days it was time alone with God.

So you can use your pain to draw closer to

God in worship. How do you do that? Well, here's

what you do. You don't tell them what you think

you ought to say. You tell them exactly how you feel.

You cry out to God when you're in pain. God,

I'm in pain. You argue with God, God, I don't

like this pain. You tell God you lament. One third

of the psalms, fifty of one hundred and fifty psalms

are psalms of lament. They're crying out to God, They're

arguing in God. Did you know that complaining to God

is an act of worship. You can worship in all

the phases of grief. You can express your shock. You

can unload your sorrow. You can share your struggle, what

you're feeling with the pain you're feeling. You can surrender yourself.

You can ask God to use the pain for good

in your life. Paul does this in Second Corinthians, chapter one,

verse eight to ten. He says, when we were crushed

and overwhelmed, and we saw how powerless we were to

help ourselves, said, even that was good for then we

put everything into the hands of God, who alone could

save us, and He did help us. When I'm in pain,

it's a time for me to draw closer to God,

not further a way. It's a time for me to

trust God more, to worship God, more, to turn to God, more,

to surrender to God more. When Matthew died, our family

did a family surrender to God retreat. Yeah, we went

over to Ranchi Caapistrano and did a day retreat on

surrendering to God the pain that we were in. I

could give you, friends, thousands, thousands of saddleback stories of

people who came to know Jesus out of their pain

or their lives were totally transformed in the process of

worshiping when they were in pain. I'm sure many of

you could say pain turned me to Christ. And if

you can say that, I say, like Paul and Second

Corinthian seven to nine, I'm glad not because it hurts you,

because the pain turns you to God. So the first

thing we do in pain is we don't run from God.

We run to him. We turn to God in our pain.

We let it draw us closer to God, to trust

him more, to worship more, to know him and love

him more. Number two, the second purpose of your life

is fellowship learning to love other people. And you can

do this. Number two, Use my pain to draw closer

to others in fellowship. Use my pain to draw closer

to others in fellowship. If you will allow it, pain

will deepen your love. Pain will mature your love because

suffering sensitizes you. I have seen pain turn the most

self centered people in the sympathetic people. When Matthew died,

Kay and I knew the statistics that couples that have

a child die nearly a third of those marriages end

up splitting up with the death of a child because

people grieve in different ways and they don't know how

to handle it. But Kay and I have actually grown

closer together since the death of our youngest child. I'm

more in love with my wife than I was when

I met her fifty years ago. You can believe that

she was two years old fifty years ago.

You know.

I asked, Kay, why do you think we made it

when we are so absolutely different in every.

Cell of our bodies.

I was hoping she'd say, because you're so nice to me,

But that's not what she said. She said, because we

intentionally worked at strengthening it, and we gave each other grace.

Pain will draw you closer to other people if you'll

be honest to God, honestly yourself, and honest with others.

Pain.

When you're in a small group and you take a

risk to share where you're in pain, it takes the

level of fellowship to the deepest level. There are four

levels of fellowship in a small group. There's the fellowship

of sharing. Hey, how about them Chargers, how about them rams?

That's sharing, it's what's going on in your life. That's okay.

It's the shallowest level, but it's okay. There's nothing wrong

with sharing fellowship. But then the deeper level is studying.

That's studying the word together is a deeper level of

fellowship when we actually serve together. We do a project

together as a small group that takes our fellowship even deeper.

Our small group went to Rwanda one time. We've done

lots of different projects together in serving together. But the

deepest level of fellowship of all, it's what the Bible

calls the fellowship of suffering.

Suffering together.

Glatians six to two says, by helping each other with

your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ. By

helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the

law Christ. What's the law Christ? Love your neighbors, yourself.

The deepest love, true fellowship shows up when people are

in pain. That's why you're going to have to use

your pain, and you're going to have to enter into

other people's pain to understand what real connection, what real quintinia,

what real fellowship, what real.

Belonging is all about.

There's a third purpose in your life, and that's God

wants you to use your life to grow in Christ

in character. And here's the third way. You use pain.

Use pain to grow more like Jesus in discipleship. Use

pain to grow more like Jesus in discipleship. I grow

closer to Him in worship, I grow closer to others

in fellowship. I grow deeper in discipleship through pain. Every

pain in your life is an opportunity to grow in character.

Learn love when you feel unloved. How do you learn

joy in the middle of Greece? How do you learn

peace when everything's in chaos? How do you learn patience

when you're not feeling patient in the exact opposite situation. Again,

this is a choice. Am I going to be bitter

or better? Am I going to let this pain be

a stepping stone to maturity or a stumbling block to immaturity?

Spiritual growth is not automatic. And you I said this

last week. I've learned nothing from pleasure in my life.

Everything I've learned important in life, I learned the pain.

We looked at this verse last week Proverbs twenty thirty.

Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change

our ways. Now, once you're saved, God's number one purpose

in your life begins to be making you like Jesus Christ.

You're born into God's family. Now he wants you to

grow up. Now, here's the corollary to that. If God

wants to make me like Jesus. That's his gold for

my life. How does God make me like Jesus? The

answer is this, by taking you through everything Jesus went through. Hello,

were there times when Jesus was lonely?

Yes?

Where the times when Jesus was frustrated? Yes, misunderstood, yes, criticized. Yes,

there were there times when Jesus was in pain.

Yes.

Look at these next two verses on your outline Hebrews

five eight. So even though Jesus was God's son, he

learned obedience from the things he suffered. If Jesus learned

obedience from suffering, how do you think you're going to

learn it? Hebrews five nine says suffering made Jesus perfect,

and now he can say forever all who obey him.

If Jesus was made perfect through suffering, how do you

think you're made perfect? How do you think you're matured?

Same way?

Folks, there are some things we only learn through pain.

In that sense, pain becomes a gift. Pain becomes a

friend if we let it draw us closer to God,

Worship draw us closer to others and fellowship, and grows

teep deeper in discipleship. You know, Paul complimented the way

the Corinthian Church had grown through their pain in Second Corinthians,

Chapter seven, Verse eleven. I love this in the message.

It says, Now, isn't it wonderful? All the ways in

which listen? This distress has goaded you closer to God.

Remember last week we talked about God uses pain to

goad me and direct me to move me in a direction.

This distress has goaded you closer to God. Now in

this verse I want you to notice as we read it,

Paul mentioned seven character qualities. And tell me if you

wouldn't want to have these seven in your life. He says,

because of the distress you've gone through. He says, you're

more alive, you're more concerned, you're more sensitive, you're more reverent,

more human, you're more passionate, and you're more responsible. Looked

at it from any angle, You've come out of this

with purity of heart.

That's the scripture.

And did you notice those seven qualities that he mentioned.

You might want to go back and circle them there

on your outline. If you want those seven qualities in

your life, that's christ likeness, then ask God to use

your pain. Don't waste your pain. Ask God to use

it to build your character. The fact is pain transforms us.

It never leaves us where it found us. We start

off in one area, we go through pain, and when

we come out of the pain, we're at a different

place in our lives every single time, hopefully more mature

if we respond correctly. Now, I know you've been under

a lot of stress for the last two years. They've

been the two worst years probably in your life. But

the number one quality of winners in life is this

resil alliance, the ability to bounce back. I've been watching

all the NFL teams through this season. We're halfway through

the season. One moment they're up, the next minute they're down.

The next minute there hero, the next minute there zero.

One minute they just beat the best team. The next

minute the worst team beat them. How do you become

a resilient person, Well, Paul shows us out.

Let me let me.

First read you Paul's testimony. To Paul's testimony is in

a couple passages. The first one is second Crinias, chapter eleven.

Here's what it says. They'll be on the screen. I've

been put in jail, as Paul talking, I've been put

in jail more often been whipped times without number. I

faced death again and again. He says, five different times

I was whipped with thirty nine lashes.

Imagine how many.

Marks were on his back five times thirty nine. Three

times I was beaten with rods, said once I was

stoned with stones, three times I was shipwrecked once. It's

been a whole day and night adrift at sea. He said,

I faced dangers from flooded rivers, and dangers from robbers,

and dangers from angry mobs. That I faced dangers in

the cities and in the deserts and on stormy seas,

and I faced dangers from people who claim to be

Christians but are not.

He said.

I've lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. He said,

I've often been hungry and thirsty and gone without food.

This is the greatest missionary in the history of Christianity.

I've often shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep

me warm. And besides all that, I've got the daily

burden of all the churches that I've started. That sounds

like pretty discouraging life. Then he adds over in chapter

one of Second Corinthians one, Second Corinthians one, eight to ten.

He says this, we're pressed on every side by troubles,

but we're not crushed and broken. That's resilience, pressed but

not broken.

He said.

We're perplexed, but we don't give up and quit. He says,

we're hunted down, but God never abandons us. And he said,

we get knocked down, but we get up again. We

keep going through suffering. These bodies of ours constantly share

in the death of Christ of Jesus, so that the

life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Wow,

would you like to have that kind of resilience? Wouldn't

you have that kind of faith that you make it

through anything, that nothing can destroy you in your life.

What was the secret of Paul's resilience is the way

what he focused on. He had an eternal perspective and

eternal purpose. Remember when I said this a few minutes ago.

You can handle unbelievable pain if you see a purpose

behind it. Well, this is why Paul was able to

handle all those things. In Tewo Corinthians, chapter four, there

on your outline, Verses sixteen and seventeen says this. Paul says,

this is the reason we never become discouraged. He's going

to give it to you. He's going to tell you

why he is resilient in the face of enormous pain,

in the resilient in the face of enormous trials, tribulations, stress, sorrows, suffering.

He says, we never give up for this reason, we

never become discouraged, even though our physical being is gradually decaying.

Did you know your physical being is gradually decaying, yet

our spiritual being is being renewed day by day, day

after day. And these temporary troubles like the one I'm

going through right now, these temporary troubles that we suffer,

will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory much greater

than the trouble. Where does all that kind of resilience

come from. Here's the verse. Here's the key to resilience

in your life. For we fix our attention. Here's what

we do. We fix our attention. That means we focus

our mind. We focus our mind not on the things

that are, but on the things that are unseen. Because

what can be seen lasts only for a little bit

of time, but what cannot be seen last forever. This

table can be seen, but one day, this table will decay,

the wood will fall apart, the iron on it will

rot or rust. But what can't be seen the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Heaven and Hell, those

are gonna last forever. All right, Let's review when I'm

going to do pain if I want to use it

for good in my own life, not waste my pain.

I use it to let me draw me closer to

God in worship, draw me closer to others in fellowship,

learn to love others and fellowship. I use it to

build my character, become more like Christ and discipleship. Number four,

use my pain to be more sensitive in serving others.

That's the fourth purpose of your life. God wants to

use pain to help you with the purpose of service,

the purpose of ministry.

You weren't put here to live for yourself.

Now, well, how does pain help you be more effective

in serving others? How does pain help you be more

effective in ministering to others? Pain sensitizes you to the

pain in others. You feel it in others. If you

have gone through a divorce, you know what it feels

like to be divorced. If you've gone through the loss

of a loved one, you know what that feels like.

If you faced cancer or any other major physical problem,

you know what that feels like. If you've been rejected,

you know what that feels like. Rather than focusing on

my pain, I choose to readdirect my focus in helping

other people in pain with the same kind of pain.

You see, Jesus wants to redeem your suffering. What does

that mean?

Redemptive suffering is when you use the pain you're going

through to help other people. This is what Kay and

I've tried to do with the loss of child through suicide.

We've tried to use our pain to help other people.

And there's almost not a week goes by in all

the years that have passed that somebody famous or not famous,

well known or none unknown, old or young, calls K

or me or both of us and asks us for help.

Why because they know where we've been through it. Second Corinthians,

chapter one, verse four to six says this God comforts

us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.

Then when others are troubled, we'll be able to give

them the same comfort that God has given us.

You can be sure.

The Bible says that the more we suffer for Christ,

the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ,

so that when we are weighed down with troubles, it

is for your benefit and salvation. Or when God comforts us,

it's so that we in turn can be an encouragement

to you, and then you can patiently endure the same

things that we suffer. You know, this past week here

in the United States was Veteran's Day. Who's better to

qualify to help a suffering veteran than somebody who has

been a suffering veteran. Whatever you have had pain in

God wants to use that to tell buthers. We're gonna

talk more about that now. Let me give you the

last one. The fifth way you can use your pain

is I can use my pain to witness to the world.

I use my pain to witness the world. I'm going

to spend more time on this in another message because

it's so important. You See, we think that the world's

impressed with our success, with our prosperity. We think the

world is impressed by how we enjoy prosperity. But actually

the world is impressed with how we handle adversity.

And when you're going through.

Pain, all the non believers around you are watching you

and see what does it mean to be a Christian

when you're in the same kind of pain. We have

the same pain everybody else does. We just have a

different source of comfort. We think our successes give credibility,

but actually it's our suffering that gives us credibility. And

the more you're honest about the suffering in your life,

the more vulnerable, the more authentic, the more powerful your

impact will be in people's lives. We think fame earns respect,

Now actually it's faithfulness that are in respect, faithfulness in

tough times. Paul of all people was a pro at

using his pain as a witness. In Philippians, chapter one,

verse twelve, he says this, I want you to know,

dear brothers and sisters, about how everything that has happened

to me, all the bad stuff. He's writing this from

prison in Rome, how everything that's happened to me has

helped to spread the good news. That's pain for a witness.

He says, I use my pain to model my message.

I'm trying to do that right now, use pain to

model the message. Tewo Corinthian six 's four says, in

everything we do, we try to show that we're true

servants of Jesus. We patiently endure suffering. Okay, we patiently

endure suffering and hardship and trouble of every kind. Now

you've heard me say this before, but I'm gonna say

it again. Your deepest life message will come out of

your deepest pain. This is real, This is authentic. This

is the kind of witness. This is the kind of

testimony the world needs see. Not Christians who are perfect,

not Christians who have everything together, but Christians who are

patient in pain, Christians who walk faithfully in suffering.

Now listen, every.

Area where you've had a pain in your life, you

may have never released, this is a testimony. You've been

in debt, that's painful, that's testimony to God help you

out of it. Had physical pain, God helped you through that,

that's testimony. Been in relational pain, God helped you. That's

testimony you everywhere you've had pain and God helped you,

that's a testimony. Please, as your pastor, I'm asking you,

don't waste your pain, don't waste your hurt. There are

people all around you going through the very thing you've

already gone through, and they want, they need your help

comforting them.

Now, here's the greatest witness.

The greatest witness of God's love in all of history

was not jesus perfect life. The greatest witness of God's

love in all of history was not Jesus' sermons. The

greatest witness of God's love for you in the world

was not jesus miracles or his stories. It was his

se That's the greatest witness of God's love. With the

arms outstretched, God says, Jesus says, I love you this much.

His suffering was the greatest witness of his love. So

here's the bottom line. You can waste your pain or

you can utilize it for good. So I said, we're

going to continue in this series, but I want to

end by giving you some homework. Don't waste your pain.

Here's what I want you to do this week. I

want you to get alone by yourself, and I want

you to write down the four most painful moments in

your life. Identify Him the four most painful moments in

your life. And then Part two is using last week's

message and this week's message using part one of the series,

how God can use my pain in life five ways,

and this week's message, how I can benefit from my

pain five choices that I can make. Use those ten

factors as a checklist to write out how you have

personally benefited from pain, how God has helped you through pain,

and how the lessons you've learned have been important to you,

and why do I want you to write down so

you can share it with the next generation. Now, before

we close, I want to pray for everybody who's in

pain right now, and if you've never opened your life

to Christ, I want to invite you to open your

life to Christ and give him whatever pain you're facing

right now. Let's bow our heads Heavenly, Father, I want

to thank you for these who are watching right now

online on the internet, at all of our campuses, wherever

we are. You're speaking to us directly right now. And

I don't know the pain that every heart that's hearing

these words is feeling, but you do. You Lord know

every pain in our heart, and so I'm asking you

to help each person where they need it, even though

I don't know what that is. I'm asking to help

every woman and every man listening right now and comfort

them with the pain in their heart, whatever it is.

And I pray that they will use these five purposes

to benefit to not waste their pain. Now you pray, say,

Dear God, just say this in your heart. Dear God,

help me to use my pain to draw closer to

you in worship, to be closer to you, to pray more,

to wait more, to listen more, to be quiet more.

And then say Lord, I'm asking you to use the

pain in my life to help me learn how to

really love other people through fellows. I want to have

a sense of belonging, a sense of connection. I want

to go through the shallower fellowship of sharing and studying

and serving and get to the fellowship of suffering. Let

me take that risk, Say God, I ask you to

use the pain in my life to make me more

like Christ. Jesus learned obedience through suffering. He was made

perfect through suffering. I'm asking you to use this for

good in my life. Build resilience in my life, Lord,

as I trust you in my pain. And then say Lord,

I'm asking you to use the pain in my life

and help me to use it to help other people

in their as a ministry. And to take the things

that I'm most embarrassed about or most discouraged about or

most afraid of talking about and use the deepest pain

in my heart to hurt others, to help others. I

don't want to waste my pain. I've already gone through it.

I don't want to waste it. And Lord, give me

a life message. Help me to use the messages of

pain in my life as a witness to others. For

jesus sake, you've never opened your life to Christ. Say

Jesus Christ, come into my life right now. Heal my

heart and heal my hurt. I give myself completely to

you in your name. I pray Amen.