God’s Purposes for My Pain

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Hello, Gateway Church.

Have I told you lately that I love you?

I really do.

And I love your dear pastor.

You know, Robert is one of the most gifted Bible teachers on the planet.

And I always learn something every time I listen to him, so you're fortunate to be a part of Gateway.

Now, I want to say hi to all your campuses, and for those of you who are watching online, thanks for joining us in this conference tonight.

Now, you may not know that before Kay and I moved to California to start Saddleback Church in 1980, just the two of us, we were 25 years old, we lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for three years.

While I was attending seminary, in fact, our first child, Amy, was born in Dallas.

So when your dear pastor invited me last fall to be a part of this conference, I was elated and I jumped at the chance to be with you.

But the last three months, honestly, friends, have been the most physically difficult and painful time of my life in 52 years of ministry.

I had two surgeries, I had two separate hospitalizations, and I spent much of the holiday season, including Christmas Day, in bed.

And I feel like I'm finally recovering.

But uh just this week my doctors told me that I couldn't travel because my immune system has been weakened, they said, and uh right now I'm pretty much susceptible to anything.

So uh I really wanted to be with you.

So I asked Robert if I could tape a message just for you uh here from my farm, and he graciously said yes.

So thanks, Robert.

You know, since I've been personally dealing with severe pain uh for the last several months, I'd like to talk to you tonight about God's five purposes for pain in your life, and also five choices that you can make that'll help you benefit uh from whatever pain you experience in life.

Now, here's the point.

No matter what kind of pain you're going through physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, financial, you'll be far better prepared to handle it and cope with it if you'll focus on God's purpose in your pain and the five potential benefits that I want to share with you tonight if you'll make the right choices.

Now, one of the most famous verses in the Bible, we all know by heart is Romans 8 28.

It's the great promise.

We know that in all things God works for the good.

In all things, God works for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose.

Now, it says, in all things, not some things.

That means the good, the bad, that means even the painful things.

Uh, God works.

It doesn't say all things are good, not everything's good.

Obviously, not a lot's not good.

Cancer isn't good, leukemia isn't good, rape, murder is not good.

Um, but in all things, God works for good.

For everybody?

No.

For those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

If you're fitting into God's plan, if you're trying to live according to his purpose, God says, I could take even the bad stuff in your life, even the painful things in your life, and bring good out of it.

Now, what I want to say to you is this pain can be managed by purpose.

It can be managed on purpose, and it can be managed for a purpose.

Pain can be managed by a purpose, on purpose, and for a purpose.

You know, if you've read the book Purpose Driven Life, you know that the Bible tells us over and over, many, many places, that God has five purposes for your life.

These five purposes are modeled in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They are explained in Ephesians 4.

Jesus prays them in John 17, but they're in the five verbs of the Great Commandment, the Great Commission.

These five purposes are repeated and reinforced hundreds of times in Scripture.

Knowing God, uh loving his family, growing in Christ, serving Christ, sharing Christ.

Now, I want us to look at these five purposes and how God uses pain for a purpose in your life, and how if you'll make the right choices, uh uh then you're gonna benefit even from the pain in your life.

Now, God's first purpose for your life is to know and love him.

To know and love him.

You are planned for God's pleasure, and this is called worship.

Worship is the first purpose of life.

To know and love God is an act of worship.

The second purpose for your life is to learn to love other people.

This is called the great commandment.

Love God with all your heart, that's worship, and love your neighbors yourself.

Second purpose for your life is to learn to love others.

You're formed for a family.

You're not just a believer, you're a belonger.

This is the purpose of fellowship.

What are we going to do in heaven?

You're going to fellowship.

What does God want you to do on earth?

Practice so you're ready for eternity.

So we get worship and fellowship from the uh from God's purpose, the first two purposes.

The third purpose for your life is to grow spiritually like Christ.

You're created to become like Christ.

And the word for this is discipleship.

Discipleship means to become like Christ.

And my the way I think and I act and I feel.

And so I worship and I fellowship and I have discipleship.

Now, the fourth purpose of your life is to use the talents that God has given you, the way He shaped you to serve other people.

This is called your ministry.

You are shaped to serve others.

God didn't put you on this planet just to take up space, breathe, uh, waste resources, and die.

No.

You're made to create, make the world a better place, to make a contribution with your life.

This is called your ministry.

It is your service, and you are shaped to serve God.

Then finally, the Bible tells us that the fifth purpose of your life is to share your life message with others.

You're made for a mission.

This is called your witness or your life message.

Now, these five purposes worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and witness, uh we know these things.

You probably heard these things since you were a child if you've been in church.

But what many people don't understand and don't know is this God uses pain to help us fulfill all five of those purposes in our lives.

All five of our life purposes.

Sadly, 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 Paul asks the question in Galatians chapter 3, verse 4 have you gone through all of this for nothing?

Galatians 3:4

Is this really all for nothing?

In other words, he's saying, don't waste your pain, don't waste your hurt.

Now, friends, because we live in a broken planet, you will have pain in life.

Pain is inevitable.

Nobody gets to opt out.

It's it's it's not optional.

Misery is optional, but pain is not.

You will have pain in life.

And the issue is this are you gonna waste it?

Are you gonna waste it or are you gonna use it for a purpose to be better, not bitter?

Now, you may have wasted all the pain in your life up to this point.

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

So I want to share with you tonight five ways to benefit from any kind of pain you're going through financial pain, relational pain, physical pain, mental pain, emotional pain.

There are five choices or actions you can take that parallel God's five purposes for your life.

And pain will make you a better person, not a bitter person.

Okay, write this down.

Here's the first way to see God's purpose fulfilled in your life through pain.

First, I use my pain to draw closer to God and worship.

I can make a choice to use my pain to draw closer to God and worship.

Now you know that when anything painful happens in your life, you've got a choice.

You can run to God or you can run from God.

Now, second never made sense to me.

I don't understand it, but and about it's about 50-50.

I've noticed when there's a disaster, about half the people run to God, about half the people run from God.

I I have spent more time with God in the years since my son died than in all the previous years.

Many of you know that in 2013, my son lost his battle, his lifelong battle with mental illness.

He was born with a tortured mind.

Had a tender heart, but a tortured mind.

He loved the Lord, but it was like a claw in his brain, this mental illness his entire life.

And he came to me one day in tears saying, Dad, why can't I just go to heaven?

I know I'm saved, I know where I'm going, uh, I can't handle this pain.

He says, I've been to the best doctors, we've had the best uh intercessors and prayer warriors.

Dad, you're a man of faith, mom's a woman of faith.

But in that time when he took his life in a moment of deep, deep depression, uh, in those years since that was the worst day of my life, and in those years since my son died, um, I have been spent more time with God than all the previous years.

Why?

Because in pain we draw closer to God in worship.

And that time alone with God kept me going through those painful days.

So, if you're going through pain right now of any kind, how do you draw closer to God in pain?

Well, you tell him exactly how you feel.

The Bible calls it crying out.

Cry out to God, complain to God.

Did you know that complaint is an act of worship?

Go read Psalms.

One-third of the 150 Psalms are not praise and thanksgiving, they're Psalms of lament.

They're David saying, God, you lied to me.

God, you you I feel cheated.

God, this isn't right.

God, I'm mad at you.

You can argue with God.

You can worship in every phase of grief.

You can express shock.

You can unload your sorrow.

You can struggle with your emotions.

You can surrender yourself to God.

Uh, you can ask God to use the pain for good in your life.

I'm saying that God doesn't want you when you're in pain to say what you think you ought to say to him.

He wants you to say how you really feel.

God, I'm hurt.

God, I'm not making it right now.

God, I'm I'm dying inside.

Look at this verse.

Paul gives us a model of authenticity in worship.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8 to 10, he says this.

2 Corinthians 1:8–10

He's giving a testimony about his own pain.

He said, We were crushed and we were overwhelmed, and we saw how powerless we were to save ourselves, help ourselves.

But even that was good.

For then we put everything into the hand of God, who alone could save us, and he did help us.

You know, when uh Matthew lost his life to suicide, uh, our family was in deep, deep grief.

And we actually went away and did a surrender to God retreat together.

And uh I I could give you literally thousands of saddleback stories of people who came to know Jesus out of their pain, or their lives are transformed by the process of worshiping when in pain.

You know it, that you your prayers get more real when you're hurting.

You know, when you're not hurting, hi God, how are you doing?

But when you're in pain, you go, God, I need your help.

Many of you could say, pain turned me to Christ.

And that's what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9, when he says to the Corinthians, I'm glad, not because it hurt you, but because the pain turns you to God.

2 Corinthians 7:9

So, what's the first thing I should do when I'm in pain?

Don't worry, worship.

Don't panic, pray.

You got a choice.

I can turn to God, I can turn away from Him.

I turn to God and He heals my hurts.

He helps me through the pain.

Here's the second thing I can do.

I not only use my pain to draw closer to God in worship, I can use, number two, I can use my pain to draw closer to others in fellowship.

I can use it, the pain in my life to draw closer to others in fellowship.

If you will allow it, if you'll be mature enough, if you'll be authentic, if you'll be real, gutsy enough, pain will deepen and mature your love.

You know what I've learned from all the pain in my life?

Suffering sensitizes you.

I have seen pain turn self-centered people into very sympathetic people.

In fact, I have a rule at Saddleback Church that in my inner circle, I won't hire anybody who hadn't been through major pain.

Because if you haven't had major pain in your life, you tend to be a Pharisee, and your attitude is very unempathetic to people in pain, and it's kind of like, well, get over it.

All you have to do is go through some major pain yourself, and it breaks your heart, and then you're sympathetic to others.

You know, when my son took his life, uh that was the hardest day of my life, and of course, Kay, too, and nearly one-third of all marriages split with the death of a child.

But Kay and I decided we weren't gonna be a statistic.

And we developed some tips and some uh some ideas that brought us closer.

And today, we've actually grown closer to each other since Matthew died than before.

Why?

Because we empathized, we sympathized.

Here's one of the things I want to tell you when people are in pain.

The deeper the pain, the fewer words you use.

All right, write that down.

The deeper someone is in pain, the fewer words you use.

Somebody's having a tough time with a bad hair day, you can talk to them for 30 minutes.

But if they've just lost a loved one, show up and shut up.

Okay?

People say, well, I don't know what to say.

Don't say anything.

When someone's lost a loved one, there's nothing you can say that can comfort them.

What they need is the ministry of presence.

You show up and you shut up.

And Kay and I decided that when one of us were going through a wave of grief, and wave is like a grief is like this.

It's one minute you're close, you're you're okay, I can handle it.

The next minute I can't handle it.

Next minute I'm in despair, the next minute, okay, I can handle it.

And there's no there's no um time delay, there's no time lapse, there's no uh expiration date on grief.

You don't get over grief, you get through it.

Okay?

And and people take different times.

There's no right or wrong way to deal with it.

The only thing that wrong is to to stuff it.

But we decided that when one of us was triggered by something, a sight, a sound, a smell, uh, a joke, anything, um, we decided that we would not try to cheer each other up.

That doesn't work.

In fact, when you try to cheer someone who's in pain, it's like you're being unempathetic.

You're not listening.

What we just walk over and we put our arms around a person and stand there and say nothing.

You show up and you shut up.

Kay and I intentionally worked that strategy on strengthening each other, and we gave each other grapes.

By the way, uh, in a small group, if you're not in a small group, you need to be in a small group.

I've been in the one I'm in right now for 20-something years.

I probably wouldn't be in the ministry if it weren't for the small group that's helped me through all the different times I've been in uh in difficult days in 52 years of ministry.

Now, in a small group, pain will actually take your small group to a deeper level of fellowship.

You see, there's four levels of fellowship.

The shallowest level is the fellowship of sharing.

How about them cowboys?

How are you doing?

And you talk about the weather and you talk about COVID, and you that's the fellowship of sharing.

Nothing wrong with that.

It's just not that deep.

But when you go down to the next level, that's a fellowship of studying.

When you get into the Word of God together, you've moved from simply sharing to studying the Word together.

But there's an even deeper level.

You move from the fellowship of sharing to the fellowship of studying to the fellowship of serving.

And when your small group has gone out and done a mission project together and you've helped other people as a team, that deepens your relationships.

But by far the most deepening aspect of all is what the Bible calls the fellowship of suffering.

The fellowship of suffering together.

The Bible says in Galatians 6, 2, by helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.

What is the law of Christ?

The law of Christ is the great commandment.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

You see, the deepest level of love shows up when people are in pain.

So, when I'm in pain, if I want to grow from the pain, if I want to develop from the pain, if I don't want to waste the pain, first I use it to draw closer to God and worship.

Second, I use it to draw closer to others in fellowship.

You see, we other people don't grow close to us in our successes.

That just creates, if I could tell you all of the great things I've accomplished, all the neat people I've met, you go, well, goody for you.

But if I tell you about marriage problems I had in our early marriage or the problem of losing a child to mental illness, or the problem of living with a lifelong thorn in the flesh, uh then you go, oh wow, if God could use Rick with all that going on, well then maybe God could use me.

Now that brings us to the third use of pain.

I can use pain not just to worship, draw closer to God in worship, draw closer to others in fellowship.

I can use pain to grow more like Jesus in discipleship.

That's God's third purpose for your life anyway.

Pain is an opportunity to grow in character.

The Bible says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, kindness, self-control.

You know those nine qualities.

How does God produce those fruit?

Am I just walking down the street one day and all of a sudden, zap, I'm filled with love, and I'm just loving everybody.

No, there's no pill I can take.

You know how God produces the fruit of the spirit in your life?

By putting you in the exact opposite situation.

God's going to teach you real love.

He's going to put you around some unlovely people.

Don't look at them.

Okay, be cool.

He'll put you around some, like they're heavenly sandpaper to rough off, you know, smooth off your rough edges.

How's God teach you joy in the middle of sorrow?

How does God teach you peace in the middle of chaos?

How does God teach you patience?

COVID lines, Department of Motor Vehicles, doctor's offices.

You learn patience through having to wait.

You see, character comes by going being put in the opposite situation.

It's easy to be patient when everything's going your way.

You're out at some, you know, uh creek bed and you're fishing, a man, it doesn't get any better than this.

But when everything falls apart, that's where you learn the different fruit of the Spirit.

But again, it's a choice.

I can be bitter or I can be better.

The pain in my life can be a stepping stone or it can be a stumbling block.

It's not automatic.

Now look at this verse.

Proverbs 20, verse 30 says this.

Proverbs 20:30

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

You know, if I were there right now, I'd ask if any of you would like to give a testimony on that verse.

Because every one of us know that we change not when we see the light, we change when we feel the heat.

You see, once you are saved, once you're in God's family, you have been redeemed and justified by the blood of Christ.

Once you're saved, God's number one purpose is to make you like Jesus.

All right?

He wants you to become like his son.

He wants to grow up and be like your older brother.

Now, here's the corollary.

If God's number one purpose in your life, this is called discipleship, is to make you like Jesus?

If God's gonna make me like Jesus, it means he's gonna take me through everything Jesus went through.

Well, the times when Jesus was lonely, yeah.

When he was frustrated, yeah.

When he was criticized unjustly, yeah.

If God did not prevent his own son from going through that pain, what makes you think he's gonna prevent it in your life?

Pain-free life is not a guarantee.

In fact, it's an impossibility.

You will have pain.

It's just what you do with it.

The Bible says in Hebrews 5, verse 8, so even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8

If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, how do you think you're gonna learn obedience?

Through everything going your way and somebody feeding you bon bonds while you sit on a couch?

No.

The Bible says Jesus learned obedience through suffering.

The Bible says in Hebrews 5 9, this suffering made Jesus perfect, and now he can save forever all who obey him.

Now that doesn't mean he was a sinner, it means complete telios.

There's some things, friends, we only learn through pain.

Now, if Jesus was made perfect through suffering, how do you think you're going to be made perfect?

The same way.

You know, Paul complimented the way the Corinthians had grown through their pain.

I love the message paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 7.11.

It says this.

Now, isn't it wonderful?

2 Corinthians 7.11, message paraphrase.

Isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress, the problem they were going through, has goaded you closer to God.

You're more alive, you're more concerned, you're more sensitive, you're more reverent, you're more human, you're more passionate, you're more responsible.

Looked at it from any angle.

You've come out of this with purity of heart.

Now, if you get a chance to go back and look at that passage, seven qualities are mentioned.

And if you want these in your life, ask God to use your pain.

See, the fact is, pain always transforms us.

It never leaves us where we are.

We'll either be bitter or we'll be better.

You know, I have been a chaplain for NFL teams in the past, and currently I've helped the Chargers a little bit.

The number one quality of winners in any sport or in any vocation is resilience.

It's the ability to bounce back because nobody goes successful every day of their life.

Everybody has failure.

How do you become a resilient person?

How do you become a resilient person when you have pain in your life?

Well, Paul shows us how.

Let me read you his testimony.

2 Corinthians chapter 11.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

It says there in verses 23 to 28.

Paul, this is Paul's testimony of pain.

I've been put in jail more often.

I've been whipped more times without number.

I've faced death again and again.

He says, five times I was whipped with 39 lashes.

Imagine that.

Cat of nine tails 39 times.

How many lashes were on his back?

Three times he says I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.

He said, once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.

Does this sound like a pleasant life?

He says I've faced dangers from flooded rivers, from robbers, from angry mobs.

I've faced dangers in the cities and in deserts and on stormy seas and from people who claim to be Christians but are not.

He says, I've lived with the weariness and pain and sleepless nights, insomnia.

I've been hungry and thirsty.

I've gone without food.

I've often shivered.

Paul says, in the cold, without enough clothes to keep me warm.

And he says, besides all this, he says I've had the daily burden of all the churches that I started.

And then he adds in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 to 10.

2 Corinthians 1:8–10

We are pressed on every side by troubles.

Okay?

But we're not crushed or broken.

We are perplexed.

In other words, I don't know why this is happening to me.

I've asked that of God many times in the last three months.

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

We're hunted down, but God never abandons us.

He says we get knocked down, but we get up again and we keep going.

That's resilience.

He says, through suffering, this is scripture, through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

What was the secret of Paul's resilience?

Were you listening when I read that?

What was the secret of his ability to keep on keeping on in pain?

An eternal perspective and purpose.

Studies have shown, many, many studies have shown, that human beings can handle an unbelievable amount of pain if they see a purpose in it.

Purposeless pain is what wears us down.

If we can see a positive purpose in our pain, God's using it for worship, for fellowship, for discipleship, if you see a positive purpose in it, then you can handle it better.

2 Corinthians chapter 4 says this, verses 16 to 18.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

For this reason, Paul says, we never become discouraged.

After he read all those things, that we read all those things about his life, he says, even though our physical being is gradually decaying, let me pause here.

Have you noticed that your physical being is gradually decaying?

Some of us is decaying a little faster than others.

Even though our physical being is decaying, our spiritual being is renewed day by day.

And these temporary troubles, these temporary troubles, circle that if you're taking notes, and these temporary troubles that we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble.

For we here's the key.

For we fix our attention, we fix our attention not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen.

Because what can be seen lasts only for a little time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.

If you want to make it through your pain, you've got to get an eternal perspective.

This is not the end of the story.

The Bible says Christ endured the cross because he looked beyond to the glory past the cross.

You have to look past the pain to the purpose and the benefits that God can bring in your life.

All right, let's review.

I won't waste my pain if I use my pain to draw closer to God in worship, to draw closer to other people in fellowship, to grow more like Christ in my character.

Number four, I can use my pain to be more sensitive in serving others.

This is a big one.

Pain sensitizes you to the pain of others.

And when you're in pain, rather than simply focusing on my own pain, I try to redirect my focus and go, who's in worse pain?

Who's having a tougher time than I'm going through?

Yeah, you're going through a tough time right now.

But let me tell you what, there are a lot of millions of people in the world going through a tougher time than you.

Jesus wants to redeem your suffering.

What does that mean?

He wants to use it for the benefit of others.

This is redemptive suffering.

He wants you to use your pain to help others in pain.

This is called redemptive suffering.

It's what 2 Corinthians chapter 1 is all about.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Verse 4 to 6 says this God comforts us in all our troubles so we can comfort others.

Then, when other people are troubled, we'll be able to give them the same kind of comfort that God has given to us.

And he says, You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

So, he says, when we're weighted down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation.

Did you hear that?

Paul says, When I'm going through troubles, it's for your benefit and salvation.

Maybe one of the stuff I've been going through the last three months is for your benefit, your salvation.

For when God comforts us, it is so that we in turn can be an encouragement to you.

Then you can patiently endure the same things that we suffered.

You know, when you think about it, who can better help somebody else than somebody who's been through it?

Who can better help an alcoholic than somebody who was an alcoholic?

Who can better help someone going through the pain of a divorce than somebody who's been through a pain of divorce?

Who could better help someone who's been molested or raped than somebody who went through those terrible, painful things?

God doesn't want you to waste your pain.

If you'll be honest with God and honest with yourself and then honest with others, God will use the very thing that you hate the most in your life may become your greatest ministry.

We think we help people in our strengths, but actually we help people out of our weaknesses.

Because then people go, oh, I can relate to that.

I can relate to that.

I can understand.

If I lived a perfect life, my marriage had never had any problems.

How in the world could I help anybody?

They go, well, you don't understand.

You've never had a marriage problem.

You've never had an argument.

God wants to take your deepest hurt and turn it into your greatest ministry.

That brings us to the fifth thing.

I can use my pain to witness to the world.

I can use my pain to witness to the world.

You know, we think that the world is impressed by how we enjoy prosperity.

That if we live this prosperous life, then wow, everybody will want to be a Christian.

No.

Actually, they're not impressed with your prosperity.

They're impressed with how you handle adversity.

That's a much greater witness.

You see, we think that it is our successes in life that give us credibility, but actually, it's our suffering in life that gives us character and credibility.

We think that fame earns respect.

And actually, it's faithfulness in tough times that earns the respect of others.

Paul in the Bible was a pro at using his pain as a witness.

Philippians chapter 1, he says this, verse 12.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that everything that's happened to me here has helped to spread the good news.

That's using pain as a witness.

Now, he says, I use my pain to model my message.

By the way, when Paul wrote that, where was he?

Tied, you know, chained to a Roman centurion in a dank, dark, dusty, musty prison cell in Rome where you didn't see the light of day.

He's saying, I want you to know that everything that's happened to me is causing other people to come to Christ.

And in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul says this, verse 4, in everything we do, we try to show that we're true servants of God.

So we patiently endure suffering and hardship and trouble of every kind.

And I said it, but I'll say it again.

Your deepest life message is going to come out of your deepest pain.

This is your greatest witness.

This is your authentic witness.

Now listen, follow me on the logic of this.

Every area in your life where you've had pain is a testimony.

You don't have one testimony.

You have hundreds of testimonies.

Have you been through bankruptcy?

That's a testimony.

Have you had cancer?

That's a testimony.

Have you struggled with kids who went to jail?

That's a testimony.

Have you had mental illness in your family?

That's a testimony.

That's what people can relate to.

Don't waste your pain.

Every area you've had pain is a testimony.

Don't waste that hurt.

I want to tell you that there are people all around you right now who are going through that pain and they need you.

You know, when you think of Jesus, the greatest witness of God's love was not Jesus' perfect life.

The greatest witness of God's love was not Jesus' sermons.

The greatest witness of God's love for us was not his miracles.

The greatest witness of Jesus' love for you was his suffering.

So let me wrap this up.

The bottom line is this you can waste your pain or you can use your pain for good.

Now, I want to close uh by giving uh by praying for you.

But first, uh let me give you a little homework assignment, okay?

That's what we do at Saddleback Church.

I give them people homework to do every week, to work on it, to be doers of the word, not hearers only.

Sometime this week, I want you to get alone with God in a quiet place, and I want you to write down, think through your life to this point.

Think through the four or five most painful moments in your life.

Shouldn't be hard.

They'll come to mind pretty quickly.

I want you to write down the four or five most painful moments.

And then using the notes that you took from this message, I put them together, and and I want you to write down how you might use those painful situations that you've gone through to fulfill God's purposes for your life.

How you could use it to draw closer to God in worship, to draw closer to others in fellowship, to grow more like Christ in character, to use the pain you've gone through to minister to others in pain, and to be a witness to the world that our God is an awesome God and that he comforts us even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

You might want to even write out the lessons that you've learned from your pain for future generations.

How have you grown through pain?

What are the things you've learned and be able to pass that on to future generations?

Thanks for letting me be with you tonight.

I love you so much.

If you're ever in Southern California, visit us at one of our campuses here or really in uh Hong Kong, Berlin, or Buenos Aires or Manila or any of the places Saddleback meets.

Let me pray for you.

Father, I know that there are people right now in deep, deep pain.

It's not a laughing batter.

They're barely hanging on, they're ready to throw in the towel, they're at the end of their rope, they're ready to give up.

And some of them are in physical pain.

And people who don't have chronic pain don't understand how debilitating chronic pain is.

We pray for them.

And we pray, Lord, not just for those in physical pain, but those in emotional pain right now.

They're in the middle of a conflict.

They're dealing with shame, they're dealing with tension, they're dealing with worry, they're dealing with anger, they're dealing with uh opposition.

Those who are struggling with mental pain, uh, and they they are consumed with fears and thoughts that they can't seem to uh to overcome.

And uh their mind goes places they don't want it to go, and and they're struggling with the pain in their mind or in their heart or in their body.

There are people who are listening who are in relational pain right now, and that can be the most painful of all.

Whatever their pain is, Father, may we bring it to you today.

Now you pray.

Why don't you say, dear God, you know the pain in my heart.

You know what I'm going through right now, you know that I'm tired and I'm discouraged.

And I'm crying out to you right now, dear Lord.

Use this pain to draw me closer to you.

Lord, use this pain to draw me closer to other people.

Lord, use this pain in my life to make me more like you.

Use this pain to give me a ministry to other people, and use my pain as a witness to the world of your strength and your comfort and your healing power.

I ask you, Lord, to use my pain for my growth and for the global glory of God in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.