Our Disruptive moments in life

Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 this morning.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

We're going to have two main passages we're going to look at.

2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10 and Hebrews 12, 5 through 11.

In his book, The Life God Blesses by George, or really, his name's George, but they call him Gordon.

Gordon MacDonald, and I know Gordon real well.

He came to Liberty a lot while I was there.

And this book, I've read it, actually, I've read it a couple of times.

But one of the things as I was preparing for this series, I remembered a passage of his book that dealt with tragedies.

And what he was basically saying, and he used the word, let me write, let me, it's in parentheses here in my notes because I want to read to you what he said.

Gordon MacDonald coins a phrase to describe the times when God brings, now wait and watch how he classifies it.

How and when God brings great blessings into your life.

And he said, these times when God brings these great blessings into the lives of his servants, he calls them, are you ready for this?

Disruptive moments.

Disruptive moments.

And here's what he said about that.

According to MacDonald, disruptive moments are those unanticipated events, most of which one would usually have chosen to avoid if possible.

Why?

Because they're painful in words.

We don't like disruptive moments.

They are too often associated with pain and intervening.

Well signifies.

That's the word.

Signifies.

Really signifies is watch.

Suffering and affliction.

Now that's deep.

I understand that.

So basically what he is saying is that there is joy when we understand that suffering, those disruptive moments, is God's way of bringing good to us instead of harm to us.

Wow.

Wow.

Now you're looking at a fixing say you're looking at a young man.

You're looking at a man that's under, I have had many disruptive moments in my life, in my career, and my ministry.

My ministry started out with a disruptive moment.

I had not been at Open Door Baptist Church but two weeks when my first wife died in my arms with an asthma attack.

My son Eric was seven or eight years old.

That was a disruptive moment in my life and my ministry.

Actually, it was the beginning of my ministry.

It was a disruptive moment when Susan and I had our second child, a little boy, born dead.

That was a disrupted moment.

And I've had many more.

And before I go to be with the Lord and my ministry's over, I'm sure there'll be more.

Because, as Gordon MacDonald says, that's life.

Are you with me?

Can I get an amen?

So, with that said, these disruptive moments, they come unannounced, they come unexpected, and without you and I getting to vote whether or not we want them, they come quickly, they come suddenly, they come unexpectedly, and sometimes they come violently.

So, how do we handle them?

How do we handle those?

This is going to be a good series, folks.

It really is.

How, the title of the message this morning.

How do we handle our disruptive moments in life?

And I got a homework assignment for you for next week.

I want you to go this all week, I want you to delve into Psalm 71.

Because next week, we'll be looking at Psalm 71, and the title of the message next week will be The Dark Times in Our Life.

And it's going to be powerful.

It's going to be powerful, I promise.

But this morning, it's very important that we get these principles.

There's five key principles about life's disruptive moments, which are illustrated in each of these passages.

And we're going to read through these passages and look at the principles, and then I'm going to give you the insight to each of these principles as an application.

Because it's good.

I mean, I I told Susan, this could not, this series, this fall series could not have come in a better time for this church.

Because right now, watch this.

How many of you have, you're in a disruptive moment right now, or you've just come through one?

Raise your hand.

Oh, look.

Just keep them up.

Mine's up too.

We're in a disruptive moment with our brother right now.

Yeah, look at this.

This is why God wants this truth.

He wants to encourage us through this series.

So try not to miss one.

Or if you do, please listen to it online or on your ear pods.

But get it.

And I know we got a lot watching right now.

This on vacation, some's in, they've already told me.

So, all right, here we go.

Let's look at the principles.

2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Let's start there.

2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Verses 7 through 10.

The apostle Paul had been granted the opportunity in verses 1 through 6.

Now this is good.

In verses 1 through 6, he had had the opportunity.

Are you ready for this?

To have, I don't know if it was an in-body experience or an out-of-body experience.

And you're right.

He didn't know either.

He couldn't explain it.

He said, I don't know if I was there personally or not, but I was there.

He had been translated to the third heaven.

Not, hey, I meant where God was.

Now I don't know about you, but if I'd been translated to heaven and I came back, I'd think I was something.

Hello?

I'd think I was, I knew it all.

So with that said, there's not any of us.

Can't you see now?

Hey, I'm Pastor Danny Lovett.

I've been to heaven.

And I've been back.

So you better listen to me.

I mean, that would have been quite a resume.

I would have, more than one.

But now watch.

Because of that, the Lord knew that there's no human being that would not have had that potential to be a very proud person.

Puffsed up.

So verses 5 through 11, listen to what God does.

Paul says, of such a one will I glory yet of myself, I will not glory, but in my infirmities.

For though I would desire to glory, oh yeah, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

Now where'd this thorn come from?

He tells you, look, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.

In other words, to give me some trouble, lest I should be exalted.

The real word means tormented.

Lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness, most gladly.

Therefore I would rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in my troubles, in my disruptive moments, in my reproaches, in my hardships, in my persecutions, in my troubles that I suffer for Christ.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And then verse 11, and I have become a fool in glory.

Ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended of you, for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

In other words, he said, God has brought this thorn in my flesh to humble me, to keep me humble.

He had been so, and I don't understand it, but I understand this much.

Every one of us have a tendency to be proud.

Amen?

Every one of us.

So with that said, let's look at the things.

First of all, I want you to see with your outline.

And number one, let's look at the principles.

The principles for disruptive moments.

Here's principle number one.

Look at the purpose.

The purpose of the disruptive moment.

Verse 7, and least I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, lest I be exalted above measure.

In other words, he, the purpose was to keep him from being proud.

That's the bottom line.

Then notice the second part.

Not only the purpose, but notice the second thing, the pain.

Look at the pain.

Verse 7.

A thorn in the flesh which was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me.

Now let me explain something to you.

Satan, the immediate cause here of our disruption.

Satan is always the immediate cause, usually, of our disruption.

Okay?

But now listen.

But God, now this is, don't miss this, but God is the ultimate reason.

Because nothing can happen to a Christian unless it goes through God first.

Hello.

You with me?

Now do you understand that?

Satan is the immediate cause, but God is the ultimate cause.

You need to understand that, because that is how that's the key to having victory over your disruption.

How do you know?

You'll hear me say this often throughout this series.

Romans 8.28.

We know all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose.

Amen.

Satan can't do anything without God's permission to a Christian.

That's pretty strong, folks.

And that's the evidence in Job.

So, that's important that you understand.

But now, no, notice what he said here: the pain.

And then you look at verse 10.

Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses.

Paul took no pleasure in the pain itself, but rejoiced in the power and the presence of God through that disruptive moment.

None of us like the pain.

No.

But there's a purpose.

And that brings me to the third thing.

In fact, and by the way, I know a lot of people try to get hung up on what was the thorn of the flesh.

And by the way, the the Greek word there is, in fact, it's a it's uh it's like those things you eat that you like.

Uh scallops, scallops.

It's also the Greek words almost sounds like scallops.

And what it means, it means a sharp stick.

So it means a stake.

So Satan literally was driving a stake through Paul's flesh.

Now, a lot of people, there's the the one that most people kind of come up with is he had an eye problem.

He couldn't see.

That's why he had people to write his letters and all.

I could, that's that's good.

I can live with that one.

But I I have a little different opinion.

My opinion is it was people.

Oh me.

Hello?

Our problem's not gonna be a is it a problem?

Yeah, it's a problem for I can't read and I have to have somebody help me.

But it's not a continuous, I meant, I meant continuous on and on and on burden to me, because I have means, I have glasses, I have people that can help me.

Uh I but the word there is in the present tense, which means it was constantly stabbing at him.

Now watch.

Hello.

Now, if you go back and read from chapter 8 to 12, you'll have to say that's a good possibility.

Because he had false prophets, he had false uh teachers doing everything they could do to undermine him and lamb blast him and ridicule him and curse him all the time.

So I think it was people.

Just a thought.

But we really don't know because it doesn't tell us.

But the eyes, I can live with that one.

But I think it was people.

And if you go back and you'll see that.

You'll see how they constantly attacked him everywhere he went.

So, with that said, that wasn't any, but anyway, so let's go see.

That was just gravy.

Watch.

The provisions.

Look at the third thing, verse 9.

Then we see the provision in the destructive moment.

Grace is sufficient.

My strength is made perfect.

Paul asked God three times to remove the thorn.

Three times.

God said no.

But God promised something better.

You know what he promised?

Grace.

Grace! To live with the thorn and to find perfect strength in the midst of his human weakness.

By the way, Jesus asked three times, if you remember, in Gethsemane for this cup to pass, too.

But God said no to Jesus, so he was in pretty good company.

Notice D.

The product of this disruptive moment.

Verses 9 and 10, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For when I am weak, then I'm strong.

God told Paul that he would have grace and strength to do his job as an apostle, but that it would be given in such a way that no one would ever think that it was Paul doing it.

Wow.

Isn't that significant?

In other words, he wanted Paul to be so humbled and so weak that the weaker and the more humble Paul was, the more the Shekana glory and the grace of God would shine through Paul.

They would know that it was no human way Paul could be doing that.

There is no human way, hey, that God, that man, us, we, this church, could be doing what God's already done here.

No way.

No way.

Jesus is awesome.

He's awesome.

He's doing it.

To have a road being torn up less than a mile away, and they need a place to dump the stuff.

At the right time, we need the road.

Hello! Darren couldn't do that.

I couldn't plan that.

God did.

Hello.

Is that not awesome?

Somebody say that's awesome.

Yes.

The more clearly, the weaker we are, the more clearly God's grace shines through.

And then look at E.

The last principle here.

The perspective of this disruptive moment.

Now we'll look at verse 9.

Therefore, mostly, gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities.

Boy, that's.

You know you're maturing when you can shout and glory in your disruptive moments.

Whew! That's good.

I'm not there yet.

That the power of Christ may rest upon me.

What a perspective.

Look, Paul seems to be looking at himself apart from his suffering.

He has to, and seeing a totally different dynamic at work in his life.

Look, look, look.

He wouldn't exchange, here's what he's saying.

He wouldn't exchange this disruptive moment for anything because he recognizes the deep experience that he's having with God.

I have been with a lot of our people, and I plan on checking now that I'm back.

I'm going to check with every one of y'all.

Come see you, talk to you, call you.

I want to know what's going on in all the intimate stuff.

You say, why?

So I can pray intimately.

I've been praying generally.

But now what's this?

He said, I'm glorying because I cannot experience God's power, protection, and provisions any other way so intimately than through these disruptive moments.

Wow.

Is that not awesome?

Think about it.

If you've been through a, or you're in one right now, what was your intimacy before the disruptive moment with God?

And then all of a sudden you got cancer.

You've lost your job.

Your wife walked out on you.

Your husband walked out on you.

Your kid was just killed in an accident.

Your baby born dead.

Boy, that has a whole difference.

You know, before God was up there, and if you needed him, you would holler, but now you're saying, Oh God, I need you now.

Big difference.

Big difference.

Even if you say, well, you you hey, you hadn't your regular, you're walking with him, but everything's been good, no hardships, no trials, no tribulations, and all of a sudden a disruptive BAM moment, a bend in the road, you turn in that curve and bam.

Hello.

That's what he's talking about.

He says, I couldn't have recognized the deep experiences of God's grace.

That I'd that, hey, any other way, I couldn't enter into that deepness with him unless of this unbelievable bend in the road.

In fact, let me tell you what I wrote.

And I I can't even remember which author told me this of the where I was re when I'm researching.

But he Said this, and it might have been in Gordon's book, I'm not sure.

But he said this Christ's power was descending upon Paul and filling him just like the Shekanah glory did in the Old Testament temple.

The Shekana glory was a guarantee of the presence of God in the midst of his people.

It was his favor, it was his protection, it was his presence, it was his power.

Just all over.

Now think about that.

I've experienced that more than once through my disrupted moment.

I never felt the power of God like I did in the shower that morning after my wife had died.

In my arms.

Unbelievable.

I just started my ministry.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Now, let's go to Hebrews 5.

There's another side.

Not Hebrews 5, I'm sorry.

Hebrews 11, verse 5.

Hebrews 11:5

12.

Thank you.

Hebrews 12, the chastening of the Lord.

This is good.

Oh boy, this is good.

I'm not going to read the verses first.

We'll just, I'll take them, read them as we go.

Now, you got to realize a letter to the Hebrews was addressed primarily to Jewish converts of Christianity.

And what was going on here, they were under the pressure to revert back to Judaism or to bring Judaism into their newfound faith.

That's the setting here.

Which I believe Paul wrote it.

We're not really sure.

But it's similar to his other writings.

So they were under the pressure to revert to Judaism.

Now, notice what he said.

They were suffering pressure.

And here's another reason I think Paul's thorn in the flesh was people.

Because right here, these Jewish converts are experiencing extreme pressure from their beloved Jewish family and friends.

They really are.

I mean, it's they're coming after them with everything they've got.

So pick up with me at verse 7.

And the first thing, again, you're going to see these same five principles.

The purpose.

Look at the purpose of this disruptive moment.

For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

But if you are, verse 8, without chastening, then you are an ill legitimate and not sons.

Wow.

All of us need discipline and training.

We all are disciplined, then also we see here out of love.

But notice what he's saying.

God's disruptive moments are to correct us and to prove our sonship.

God's disruptive moments in our life are to correct us and to prove his love to us as a father does to his son.

Wow.

That's good, folks.

That's really good.

And that's where we see.

In other words, what he's saying is this that human experience reminds us of spiritual truth that we are a child of God and that he will always be there.

And hey, and he will always be there when you and I need him.

I love what he says in Hebrews 13, 5.

He'll never leave us nor forsake us.

And Psalms 34, 17, the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Wow.

So this is what he's saying.

Disruptive moments give you the opportunity to call out to him and prove his presence to you.

There are the moments in which your childhood is proven once again to all of us.

And three things here.

You know why they come?

One, to show us his love toward us.

Two, two, and I love this, to reveal that we are his children, and three, to reveal the areas that we need correcting.

Hello.

You okay?

Somebody say something.

So this chastisement, which comes in sometimes forms of disruptive moments, are because God loves us like a father loves his son.

That's why he says, you know, in Proverbs, what does he say?

Members?

What is it?

Proverbs 34.

He that spoils his child holds back the rod, but he that loves him chastening his many times for his good.

Same way with God with us.

One of the reasons these disruptive moments come is to prove God's love toward us, that he loves us.

And not only that, that he knows we need what?

Correcting sometimes, or we need maturing sometimes.

Does that make sense?

So that's that's another part of these disruptive moments.

So I want you to understand that.

It's not bad.

It's not meant to be bad, and I'm going to show you that here in a minute.

In fact, watch this.

I wrote this out because this had been, I'd always, even early in my ministry, God's, what's the difference between God's punishment, okay?

And God's discipline.

I used to have people say, well, there's no difference.

Well, let me let me tell you what I believe by my research scripturally, okay?

I wrote it down.

God's discipline is always corrective, not punitive.

That's good now.

God's discipline is always corrective, not punitive.

God's discipline reveals his love, his sonship with his relationship with, and he tries to correct us.

Now watch this.

God's punishment stemmed from his wrath against sin.

But God's discipline stemmed from his love for his children.

Punishment is God acting as a judge.

Boy, is that not true.

But discipline is God acting as a father.

Difference.

God does not act with us as his children as a judge, he acts as a father.

But if you're lost and you don't know Christ, then you will be dealt with as God as a judge because he will not allow sin to enter into his presence.

Very good.

There's a difference.

God loves you.

God loves you with all his heart.

God died for you.

And God loves you so much that he will correct you.

Amen.

He will mature you.

I was experiencing that with my grandchildren.

I was trying to tell them the difference.

Why do we say no?

Because we love you.

And Braden said, well, if you love me, you'd let me do what I want.

I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Because what you want to do sometimes is not best for you.

It can hurt you.

Amen.

So that's good stuff, folks.

I mean, that's good.

So, we see right here the pain of the disruptive moment.

There's chastening, there's rebuke, there's scourges, there's correction, there's pain, and there's painful in verses 5, 6, 9, and 11.

In fact, let me tell you what the word scourges there.

It's mastigo.

You know what it is?

It's a literal flogging of a whip that was used quite often in the Jewish culture.

That would be brutality now.

But that's what it was.

And that's what they used.

And I'm not saying that was right, but what I'm saying is it was painful.

Very painful.

We would be less than honest if we would say that our disruptive moments are anything but painful.

Why?

Because it hurts.

And yet there is a divine purpose in those times of correction and training.

Notice the provision in the disruptive moment.

God deals with you as sons.

It's a proof of your sonship.

Look at the product of this disruptive moment.

Look at it.

That we may, verse 10 and 11, be partakers of his holiness.

Yes, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Wow.

It's for our benefit.

It's for our good.

It produces fruit in our lives.

Isn't it amazing how after you correct your children and really love and discipline in the right way, that they're nicer?

You ever notice that?

Now they have to pout for a little while.

But isn't it it really and then you say, wow, I should have done that quicker.

But isn't it true?

Sure it is.

Isn't it kind of nice when after your wife whips you?

Or after y'all have a lovely discussion.

A disruptive moment.

That was good there.

Hey, but you mean everything you work through the problems, you work through the differences, you work through all that.

There's just a there's a peace and a relaxing and a joy.

That's the way it is with God.

I'm telling you, is that not good?

That's the way it is with God.

He wants to work through those things that he needs to work out of you with you so that he can put in you those things he wants.

Woo! Don't ask me to repeat that again.

Is that not true, though?

Am I the only one preaching to me?

Please tell me I'm hitting on cylinders here.

Amen.

I know I am.

I know I am.

This is so good.

Oh, it's good.

So now the perspective.

The product is we'll, hey, we're loved, we'll produce more fruit, we'll be have a great testimony, we'll be holy.

And then the perspective, though, here's this, you can't miss this, and then we're going to get to the application.

What's this?

This is so good.

The perspective of this of these disruptive moments.

Verse 5 here says we have three choices we make in response when one of these disruptive moments come.

Number one, we can despise the moment and rail against it.

For example, why did this happen to me?

Boy, if I said that.

And this is one.

This is a good one.

I've used this one.

Lord, why are you letting this happen to me?

Don't you know?

I'm a preacher.

Don't you know I love you.

I preach for you.

I win souls for you.

I study my mind.

Why me?

Why did this happen to me, Lord?

Why am I going through this?

God, why are you letting this happen to me?

Boy, that's a good one.

Yep.

Railing against God when you come around to Ben in the road is always an option.

Option number two.

Option number two, you can just get so discouraged, you just quit on God.

You just quit.

Quit reading your Bible, quit coming to church, quit being around your Christian friends, you just quit.

You get so down and out.

But let me remind you, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

Proverbs 24, 10.

Or, number three, we can endure it and be trained by this disruptive moment.

The right response is at the end of verse 11.

Here it is.

Everything that happens to us, every disruptive moment, every bend in the road, hey, it's for the purpose of God training us.

That's what you gotta know.

It's for the purpose of God training us.

And through this process, he wants to educate us and to teach us what we cannot learn in any other way.

When we become discouraged by the event and lose heart and give up.

Or number three, we can endure it and be trained by it.

Job put it this way: happy is the man whom God corrects.

Job 5.17.

Happy.

Why?

Because you're learning.

God loves you.

He's correcting you to teach you so that you can, hey, be productive, so that you can have a great testimony, be righteous.

And because you can have that peace that passes all understanding.

There is not a greater peace in your life and in my life than when we know we're doing what God's called us to do and we're being right about it.

Amen.

You with me?

Psalms 119, 75 says, I know, O Lord, what?

Listen, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness has afflicted me.

Whoa, did you hear that?

And thou in thy faithfulness has afflicted me.

In other words, that disruptive moment is for our good.

As a Christian.

It's either the brain, hey, to correct us or to mature us, but it's for our good.

Can I get an amen?

Man, that's write that down, Psalms 119, 75.

So I identified five principles that will help us embrace what you find when you go around that bend and bam, you've hit head on.

Now, let's look at it.

Here we go.

Look at the purpose.

Here's the application of the purpose.

Disruptive moments are often, remember this, this is what you're going to put in your Bible, you're going to keep it.

Disruptive moments are often divine appointments by God.

Divine appointments.

That's good.

And for a lot of you that are ministering, and I thank you, we've got a lot of you that have been going through your disruptive moments and through your trials, you're helping other people going through those same trials.

Tracy, and I know, and I know Tabitha and other people are ministering to people because you've been there.

And the exciting thing about that is this principle that the divine appointments for you to be a blessing to others.

We know, dude.

Yes.

That's it, folks.

I'm telling you, it's awesome.

It's a divine appointment.

Believing that your disruptive moments or divine appointments will change your whole perspective.

That'll change your whole perspective about that incident.

Can I get an amen?

And here's why.

Are you ready?

Now, this I'm gonna have a spell with.

Because nothing comes into your life that is not from God.

Now, watch.

Let me tell you, I would have told you that early now.

You were gonna.

Now, watch this.

Hang on to this.

This is gonna bless your heart.

And I gave you the verses there.

Nothing can come to you or touch you or touches you.

Hey, and I love this.

God reminds us that whatever touches us touches the apple of his eye.

Wow.

Zechariah 2.8.

He also reminds us that when the enemy comes in like a flood, he defends us.

Isaiah 59, 19.

Look at what else.

We are precious in his sight.

Isaiah 43, verse 4.

Isaiah 43:4

And he has limitless resources by which, watch, he meets our needs.

Philippians 4, 19, my God should supply all your needs according to his riches and glory through Christ Jesus, just like he's doing out here.

And then he reminds us that in him we have everlasting consolation and good hope.

2 Thessalonians 2, 16 and 17.

And then he reminds us a defense against, that he is a defense against our enemies.

Psalms 37, 1 and 6.

And when life gets too heavy to bear alone, notice what he says.

Deuteronomy 15, 10.

Wow.

When they call me to be the dean of the seminary, the highest academic institution you could be in theological circle.

I looked and I said, What?

You don't understand.

I didn't even like school.

Now I'm gonna be the dean of it.

That's my wife.

No, he didn't ask me.

Father didn't ask me, he knew I wouldn't take it.

He just appointed me.

Said, let me introduce y'all to our new dean today.

This slide, National TV, millions watch.

Susan's turn says, Do you know who it is?

I said, No.

He said, Dr.

Lovett, would you please come up here?

I almost said, is that you, honey?

God is my witness.

That's the way I was made the dean of the seminary for 11 and a half years.

He didn't say no to Dr.

Falwell.

Well, my fault, I'd decide I'd gone in there and I'd eat with him two or three times a week, but I'd cast the vision of what we needed as a dean because I'd been there a couple of years.

I said, we need a somebody that's got a heart for evangelism, somebody that can train preachers to build a church and shepherd people and not to build and train theologians.

He just smiled.

Sunday morning.

We found our dean.

Dr.

Danny Lovett, would you please come up here?

I said, boy, I opened my big mouth.

But God blessed it.

We went from 150 to almost 5,000 counting online.

Went from four professors to almost 30 in that short tenure.

Why?

Because God wanted it.

That's it.

I'm telling you.

God has a purpose.

God has a purpose.

It's a divine appointment.

Number two.

Well, three, pain.

The pain.

What's now here's the application.

Progress without pain is not possible.

This is good, boys.

Girls.

This is good.

You can't progress and it not hurt.

Can I get an amen?

I don't care what you do.

Now, if you do nothing, it won't hurt.

Well, that's Not true.

You're gonna hurt by just sitting on your backside.

But you'll never accomplish anything.

There's growing pains.

There's growing pains.

There's been growing pains ever since we started this church.

There always will be.

So you just work through them.

You just work through them.

You don't give up.

You don't quit.

Hey, you don't complain about it.

We can rail about it.

We can get discouraged and quit.

Or you know what you do?

You just get up, go back to work.

Hey, God knows.

Now, now what you do, you evaluate.

You always evaluate and internalize and make sure.

Hey, did what did we do wrong?

Did we do if we did, let's change it, let's make it better.

I mean, it's again corrective.

Amen.

Corrective.

But they're divine appointments and they're painful.

Look at the third thing.

By the way, it is impossible for your character, now watch this, to grow and to develop without pain.

Impossible.

You don't grow, you'll just be a brat or baby all your life.

And we don't want babies at 40 years of age.

So pain, progress without pain is not possible.

Alright?

Watch this.

This is good.

Boy, this is good.

In fact, I got to thinking about it.

What happens when a storm comes, like a hurricane or tornado?

Okay.

Y'all have been in them, we've all been in it.

It tears things up, doesn't it?

And then what do we do?

We build them, we rebuild them, don't we?

A disruptive moment sometimes tears the shutters off, the door, whatever needs ripping off.

All the loose stuff, Danny.

There you go.

That we need to repair.

And then we come back and we what do we usually do?

We build it stronger and better.

That's good, Lord.

Thank you.

Oh, here's another one.

What about the plants when the wind comes?

You know what?

I've read, now for you that do all this planting, but this is good.

They say when strong winds come with plants, their roots go deeper.

They go deeper.

And then after the storm, what has happened?

They have produced a stronger foundation for the next storm.

Is that not good?

So, see, what happens when these storms come?

It allows us to allow our roots to grow deeper into Christ through the person and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so when this next storm comes, we're not moved as easily.

We don't give up as easily.

We don't complain as easily.

Because we know what's this?

It's for our purpose.

We know.

And then look at the provision.

The promise of God is the provision of grace.

Whew! My grace is sufficient.

There is nothing that you go through, even death itself, that his grace will not take you through it.

And I've been at the deathbeds of those that were saved and those that weren't.

There's a major difference.

The uncertainty and the fear, the fear, the fear, the fright is there with those that aren't.

Major difference.

And then the product.

Disruptive moments produce dynamic growth.

The provisions of grace in John 15, I meant to, you need to write that.

I think I gave that.

Is I meant to bring that example out.

In verse 15, in chapter 15, the pruning process, this is another great example.

What happens?

How many of you have done pruning?

Raise your hand.

All right.

I know my wife had.

Why do you prune, honey?

That it'll grow stronger and more fruit.

When is the pruner any closer to the bush than when he's pruning?

He's not.

So when we're being pruned by God, that's when he's the closest to us.

Is that not good?

Is that not good?

So we've seen three passages of scripture right here when we get to this dynamic growth.

Right here.

These disruptive moments in our lives, more power.

We saw more power in 2 Corinthians 12, more righteousness, better testimony in Hebrews 12, and then in John 15, more fruit.

More fruit.

So watch this.

I brought it kind of to a conclusion with myself, and I, that this never have I sensed the closeness and provision of God as I have in those moments of my disruption or that bend in the road when I had head on with a trial, a tribulation, a tragedy in my life, than when those occurred.

That was when I was the closest with my God.

Amen?

That's true, folks.

It's so true.

It's so true.

So during stormy weather, when the strong winds blow, the roots and the plants dig deeper, the foundation grows stronger, we grow stronger.

And then that brings me to the last perspective.

What we receive from our disruptive moments depends upon how we respond.

Hello.

Disruptive moments produce dynamic growth, but then number six, what we receive from disruptive moments depends upon how we respond.

Remember, three ways.

We can rel against them, we can get discouraged by them and quit, or we can endure and be trained and be taught.

Is that not good?

So when they come, don't say why, Lord, say what, Lord.

Amen.

And I close with the greatest example.

You know what the greatest example was?

Remember Joseph?

I thought about Joseph.

How many disruptive moments did he have?

What did he hey?

What was his disruptive moment when his birth hey, his brothers did to Joseph?

They threw him in the system and sold him into slavery?

What was the disruptive moment the moment that Joseph had?

Hey, when he was sold to Potiphar?

What was the disruptive moment when Potiphar's wife accused him falsely?

What was Joseph's disruptive moment when Baker and Butler forgot him, his friends forgot him?

What was his response?

He had a choice.

But you know his choice was always not why, what.

And because of that, look what happened.

He found favor.

He found favor with Potiphar.

Then he found favor with the warden after the door deal with Potiphar was gone.

He found favor with the warden.

After his friends, hey, denied him, didn't think about him, left him, didn't say anything about him to the king, except they remembered, oh, the king had a dream.

They couldn't, nobody could interpret it.

They said, well, there's somebody in your jail.

And by the way, they were in the good jail, not the bad jail.

They were in the king's jail.

It was kind of a good jail.

If you could be in jail good.

But they said, you got somebody in your jail that might can do it.

Brought Joseph before the ruler of Egypt.

And what happened?

He found favor in the eyes of who?

Pharaoh.

Found favor in the eyes of Potiphar, eyes in the warden, eyes in Pharaoh, all because he didn't say why, he said what.

Is that not good?

Is that not good?

Whew! How about his dream he had, man?

Well, that got him thrown in the cistern.

It did.

That was his first disruptive moment.

Now watch.

Then all of that, when his brothers come, they think that they don't know who Joseph is yet.

They think he's the second in command.

Right under Pharaoh was Joseph.

Ow! Wow! That's you know what that is?

That's going from the pit to the palace overnight.

Now watch.

There he is.

And then they find out it says, brother.

That brother.

And they're all scared.

And Joseph reaches out and he says, brothers, don't worry.

You meant it for evil.

But God meant it for good.

Genesis 50-20.

Romans 8 28 in the Old Testament.

Genesis 50-20.

Can you believe that?

Can you believe that?

Why?

Because every bend in the road when he would turn that curve.

He'd shake his head and say, I don't understand this.

But I do know this.

You wanna teach me?

You wanna show me what I can do and be more effective for you.

What a new perspective on a tragedy.

Isn't it I don't know why, mate?

What have I ever done?

To deserve this one?

No.

What, Lord?

Do you want to teach me and correct me so that I can be more effective for you.

Now folks, I don't know about you.

But that helps me.