No one wants to experience tough times. But when they come our way, we have a choice about how to view them: as a burden or a bridge. Many people believe that they draw closer to God through blessings, but really, we discover God’s true love, mercy and grace through difficult situations and circumstances. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
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male announcer: “In Touch,”
with Dr. Charles Stanley,
celebrating 45 years of God’s
faithfulness and sharing
the gospel worldwide.
Next on “In Touch,”
“Adversity–Burden or Bridge?”
Dr. Charles Stanley: Well,
there are probably more people
going through adversity
today than
a long, long time.
And a lot of that is because
of financial circumstances
and situations.
And they’re facing things they
never faced before.
They never even thought about
losing their home or not being
able to send their
kids to college.
Never thought about the fact
that they wouldn’t have all
their needs met and the way
they’d been meeting them.
Never thought about the somebody
would walk in and say, We don’t
need you anymore in this job.
Adversity comes in all forms.
And when I think about it,
I think about,
how universal it is.
It doesn’t make any difference
where you live, where you come
from, what color, what culture,
doesn’t make any difference.
Adversity is just adversity.
What really makes the difference
is our attitude.
Makes all the difference
in the world.
And so, when a person’s attitude
is that they want to blame
somebody else or put somebody
else on the responsibility road,
then things don’t
work out right.
It’s when my attitude is
right that matters.
And what I want you to
understand in this message,
I want you to understand that
adversity in our life can either
be this overwhelming sense
of burden.
This burden that is
weighty, heavy.
That makes us weary, tired,
restless, and just worn out.
Or the same adversity can be
like a bridge.
Like a bridge that leads me to
a deeper relationship to God.
It’s all in my attitude and all
in my understanding of what God
is doing.
So in your own life would you
say that the adversity in your
life is like a burden?
It’s a heavy weight in your life
and you just keep thinking,
God how much am I going
to have to go?
Or do you see it
as an opportunity?
As a bridge over which you can
travel above those circumstances
and above all the adversity
that’s there because you
understand that it’s leading you
into a deeper relationship
with Jesus Christ?
Well, the apostle Paul is the
best example in the Scripture of
a person who not only went
through all kinds of adversity
but who understood the
most basic principles.
And in this passage, if you will
listen carefully, and I want to
encourage you to write down
these statements, it will help
you, enable you to keep your
attitude right, the goal right,
understand what God is doing in
your life, and you will have
a totally different attitude
about whatever you’re going
through, whatever that may be.
So I want you to turn to second
Corinthians chapter twelve.
And you’ll remember in second
Corinthians, Paul is writing
about many things dealing
with the church.
But one of those things that
he’s dealing with here in this
eleventh and twelfth chapters is
his own adversity and the things
he had to go through.
So in the eleventh chapter
he lists many things that
he had had to suffer.
For example, he said, “He was
stoned and left for dead in
Lystra, and he was shipwrecked,
and left out there to die,
and he was beaten several
times with rods.
He was jailed over, and over,
and over again.
They tried to assassinate him
several times.
And so, this is the kind of life
he lived from the time he
was saved, went to Arabia,
to understand better
the Word of God.
When he came back and began
to preach, it was one adversity
after the other.
And he sort of ends up his list
in the eleventh chapter in he
ends it up sort of in verse
twenty-eight by saying, “Apart
from such external things, there
is the daily pressure on me, of
concern for all the churches.”
And so he said “daily pressure.”
That is, this wasn’t something
that happened once in a while.
Daily he felt the burden.
He felt the pressure, daily.
Of all the churches that he’d
started, what’s happening
to them, is that false doctrine
entering these churches.
In other words, he had a
tremendous responsibility
and opportunity.
But adversity was a
big part of it all.
So what did he learn?
How did he go through this?
What was his attitude?
And I want us to come to this
passage in a few moments just to
look at all the things that he
learned that you and I can learn
that will help us face whatever
we have to face in life.
You’re going to face adversity.
The question is, how are you
going to face it?
How are you going to respond?
Are you going to respond in a
way that you come out winning no
matter what?
Or are you going to face it in
such a way that you’re going
to try to deny it?
That’s not going to work.
You go to alcohol and sex and
drugs, they’re not going
to work.
Or some kind of pleasure that
none of that’s going to work.
So how are you going to face it?
Are you going to
crumble beneath it?
Are you going to say, I can
handle it some way?
Are you going to deal
with it in reality?
What I want you to see, and the
rest of this message is this,
there are some specific truths
the Apostle Paul learned, that
he’s sharing in this passage,
that will help you through any
and every adversity in life.
So, I want you to listen
carefully for your own sake
because it’s gonna happen,
you’re gonna need it, and the
question is: how are
you gonna respond?
So I won’t put these in any
order necessarily of importance
from somebody’s viewpoint.
I just want to start with this
very first thing and that is,
he learned this, that he and all
of these are on the mag screens.
And I want you–encourage you
to write them down.
He learned that he could
experience contentment in the
midst of his adversity.
Which is what most people
never learn.
That he could be content in
the midst of his adversity.
Now, in chapter four of
Philippians for example in that
eleventh verse, he says this
very thing when he’s writing
about what’s happening to him.
He says in verse ten, “But I
rejoiced in the Lord greatly,
that now at last you have
revived your concern for me;
indeed, you were concerned
before, but you have
lacked opportunity.”
They’ve been supporting him and
then they couldn’t be.
He says, “Not that I speak from
want, for I have learned to be
content in whatever
circumstance I’m in.”
So, now back to this twelfth
chapter, where we’ll spend
most of our time, beginning in
this particular passage, and
I want you to notice what
he says in verse 10.
He says, “Therefore, I’m
well-content,” with what?
“Weaknesses, insults,
distresses, persecutions,
difficulties.”
That’d send most people to bed.
He says, “I’m content
with these things.”
Now, why could he say that?
Because he knew how to respond.
Here’s what he learned, he
learned that he was learning
something about his
relationship to Jesus.
And he was learning that these
things were not tearing him down
but that somehow he could have
contentment.
And remember he’s writing.
He’s writing Philippians and
Ephesians, Colossians.
He’s writing these epistles from
a prison cell because he’s gone
one jail to the other.
And now he’s talking about the
fact that one thing he learned
was that he could have
contentment in the midst
of all that.
There’s only one way to be
content in the midst
of adversity.
And when we go through these I
think as they we add one upon
the other you’ll
understand that.
The second thing that I want you
to notice here is this, he could
experience God’s supernatural
strength in his weakness.
Because that’s what
adversity does.
Adversity, adversity makes us
weak, emotionally or physically,
whatever it might be.
It makes us weary and tired and
worn out.
And here’s what he says, he
said, he learned that he could
experience God’s
supernatural strength.
Listen to what he says in this
passage in in in second
Corinthians, in verse ten,
“Therefore I’m well content with
weaknesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties, for Christ’s
sake,” he says, “for when I am
weak then I am strong.”
Here’s what he learned, he says,
“Here’s what I’ve learned,
I’ve learned that when I’m at my
weakest moments in my life,
when I think, I just can’t
keep going.”
Remember what he said?
The daily pressure of the
churches is upon him, the fact
that they try to assassinate
him, stone him, whip him.
In other words, he says, what
I’ve learned is this:
When I am the very weakest,
I get my greatest surge of the
presence of the supernatural
energy and power in my life.
I can keep going.
It’s when I think I can’t that I
begin to realize who is my Lord?
Who is my strength?
What is this life within me?
It is the life of Jesus.
And he says, When I come to
those points that I think I
can’t handle it that’s when I
get this new, fresh awareness
and energizing of
Christ within me.
Energizing me and enabling me.
And so, that being true,
whatever he was facing, like
a bridge, these truths would
help him to drive right over it.
And then he said he had learned
the–listen, he said he had
learned the source for all
of his needs.
Notice what he says in this
passage, he says beginning
in verse nine.
“And He has said to me, ‘My
grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in
weakness.’
Most gladly,” he says,
“therefore, I will rather boast
about my weaknesses, so that
the power of Christ
may dwell in me.”
He says, I’ve learned that my
sufficiency is in Christ.
He says, I’ve learned that when
I’m going through these
difficulties, when there’s no
one there to help me; and
oftentimes he was abandoned
even by his friends.
He says, I’ve learned that
whatever my need is, Christ is
my sufficiency.
Knowing Him, loving Him, being
loved by Him, being cared
for by Him.
This relationship, this intimate
relationship that he
has with Christ.
He says, What I’ve learned is
that even in my worst adversity,
that relationship gives me
a sense of sufficiency.
Because I know that
He’s made promises.
He’s made promises that He’s
going to guide me and keep me
and supply my need
whatever that might be.
And, of course, you and I all
know the verse in Philippians,
“My God shall supply all your
needs according to his riches
and glory in Christ Jesus.”
That comes from a person who
spent a lot of time in jail
persecuted, stoned, shipwrecked,
you name it.
What’s he saying?
He’s talking about
being content.
He’s talking about the
supernatural energy of Almighty
God coercing through his life,
equipping him, and making him
sufficient to deal with any and
every circumstance of life.
You see, he was looking in the
right direction when
adversity came.
Not looking within himself, but
looking to the Lord Jesus, and
knowing and having learned, and
learning at the same time there
was something about that
relationship that made it
possible for him to
rise above that.
And this is why, for example,
also in Philippians, he says,
“The whole praetorian guard,
they know I’m here in jail, and
as he was chained to these
soldiers and sharing his faith
with them, God was working
mighty miracles through
his life.”
Because you see, he didn’t give
up and quit, and he didn’t say,
“Well, God, where are you?”
He was learning something.
And he’s learning something that
he’s placed in this passage.
He learned that God was a source
of all of his needs.
And he also, listen, came to
realize that he could trust
in the faithfulness of God.
He could trust in the
faithfulness of God.
That is, that God was going to
be true to His promises.
And when I think about that
promise I think about what he
says in verse ten.
He says, “Therefore I’m well
content with weaknesses, with
insults, with distresses, with
persecutions, with difficulties,
for Christ’s sake; for when I’m
weak then I’m strong.”
He said, I know that my God is
going to be faithful to keep
His word.
That’s He’s going to supply
my needs.
That that I’m going to be
sufficient in Him to face any
and every situation and
circumstance of life.
And, you see, when a person
begins to question the
faithfulness of God because of
adversity, God wants us at that
point to turn to him, and ask
the question, “Were you faithful
back yonder?
Were you faithful to
keep your word?
Did you do what
you promised here?
When I prayed there, what
happened?”
That is, the truth is if you’ll
think about it, God can’t do
anything but be faithful.
That’s who he is.
That’s his nature.
And because His nature is to be
faithful to us we can trust Him.
That in whatever circumstance
we’re going through, whatever
the situation may be, that we
can count on Him to be who He
says He is, count on Him to do
what He says He’ll do and see us
through it no matter what.
Then another issue that he
learned here and that I think is
so very, very valuable.
He says for example, he learned
that God valued his service more
than his desires.
Now listen to what he says
in this twelfth chapter,
verse seven.
He says for example, “Because of
the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to
keep me from exalting myself,
there was given me a thorn in
the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me, to keep me
from exalting myself!”
Here’s what he saying, it’s
an awesome valuable lesson.
He says, I’ve learned that from
God’s perspective, He knows
exactly what it takes to bring
me into an intimate relationship
with Him.
And, listen, watch this, God is
so desirous to bring us into
that living, eternal, listen,
satisfying, enjoyable,
indescribable,
intimacy with Him.
That look, He will overlook my
desires in order to do what?
He will overlook my desires in
order to equip me to serve Him.
But if I choose to just soak and
have self-pity and all the rest,
I’m going to lose the most
wonderful opportunity.
And the most wonderful
opportunity, watch this, is not
just being a servant of God, but
this wonderful, intimate
relationship that develops in
that kind of adversity that
comes no other way.
Then I think about what he says,
when he says, he learned that
even in his adversity, that God
was strengthening his message
to his followers.
And that’s interesting because
in Philippians, here he is in
jail and here’s what’s
happening.
some of his followers were out
there and they’re not being very
understanding of the apostle
Paul, in fact they’re
criticizing him.
And here’s what he says in
verse thirteen, “So that my
imprisonment in the cause of
Christ has become well known
throughout the whole Praetorian
Guard,” and they were the ones
who had defended the emperor,
“And to everyone else, and that
most of the brethren, trusting
in the Lord because of my
imprisonment, have far more
courage to speak the Word of God
without fear.”
Now he says, “Some, to be sure,
are preaching Christ even from
envy and strife, but some are
for good will.”
That is, here’s what he’s
saying, he says, That even in
our adversity, God is doing
something in our life.
What is He doing?
He’s strengthening our message.
Because you see, when you go
through difficulty and hardship
and pain in your life and you
begin to understand how God is
working in your life, your faith
your faith for example
becomes stronger.
And, he also learned to see
everything as coming from God.
Which is one of the basic
principles to prevent a person
from being bitter and
resentful and hostile.
Listen to what he says
in this passage.
He says, for example, in
verse seven, “Because of the
surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason,
to keep me from exalting myself,
there was given me a thorn in
the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me, to keep me from
exalting myself!”
Now, where did that come from?
Ultimately it had to be God.
That is, God could
have stopped it.
He could’ve stopped all of that.
But He allowed it.
What was He doing?
He was allowing these things
in his life.
And Paul said one of the
greatest things he’d learned,
was to be able to see everything
as coming from God.
Then of course he learned
something else.
And that is, he says, we become
far more capable of being
comforters to other people when
we have been through adversity
and have been comforted
ourselves.
Now he says that in different
ways in this particular passage.
But I want us to go back to what
he said in the first chapter
of this book.
This is the twelfth chapter
we’ve been talking about but
back in the first chapter, he
starts off his–this letter
to the Corinthians.
And here’s what he says.
He says, “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of
all comfort, Who comforts us,”
watch this, “Who comforts us
in all our afflictions or
adversities so that we will be
able to comfort those who are in
any affliction with the comfort
with which we ourselves are
comforted by God.”
Then he says on later in that
verse, in the same chapter,
“For we do not want you to be
unaware, brethren, of our
affliction which came to us in
Asia, but we were burdened
excessively, beyond our
strength, so that we despaired
even of life.”
That’s what he
was going through.
And what
is he talking about?
He’s talking about, that God, in
those situations by comforting
him, has equipped him to be
a comforter of other people.
You can only comfort people
genuinely when you’ve been hurt,
when you’ve felt pain, when
you’ve felt rejection, when you
have felt in need and when you
have felt yourself heading
in the wrong direction.
When you’ve felt yourself losing
it, losing it, losing it in life
and somehow God begins to
work in your life His
awesome comfort.
And he says, what he’s learned
is this, we become the most
effective when we’ve
hurt the most.
When we have to be comforted
then we understand what it means
to comfort someone else.
So when he talks about all the
things that he’s learned, and
how to deal with adversity,
listen, here’s what he’s saying:
when I’m dealing with adversity,
I understand that God is
equipping me in
the very process.
Equipping me to be a comforter
to someone else.
So we don’t like adversity, but
what we have to ask is this:
when am I the most effective?
When I have hurt like
they’ve hurt.
When I have felt what they felt.
So, am I willing to feel what
they feel, and hurt like they
hurt, and have pain
like they’ve hurt?
Am I willing to suffer loss if
that will equip me to be the
kind of comforter that
some people need?
Paul says, “Yes, yes indeed,
I will.”
And what I’ve learned in my
needs and my hurts, that I am
the strongest and most effective
in my comforting.
Then, of course, he
mentions something else.
He says, “He learned that God
had a specific purpose for
the adversity.
Now that’s what he starts off
saying in this 12th chapter.
Listen to what he says: “Because
of the surpassing greatness of
the revelations,” now what
is he talking about?
Now, the book of Revelation is
singular, Revelation, because it
was one prophetic revelation.
When he talks about these
surpassing revelations that he
has, it meant those times, those
situations and circumstances in
which God revealed him–to him
this truth, and that truth,
and this truth, and that truth.
He’s says, “God had given him
such awesome, surpassing
revelations, that in order to
keep him from becoming prideful,
and arrogant, he says, ‘There
was given me a thorn in the
flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me, to keep me
from exalting myself.'”
Now, you might think about this
when you’re going through
something and it’s
very difficult.
You may ask yourself the
question, “God, what’s your
purpose for this?”
In fact, you have a
right to ask that.
In fact, you should ask it.
What’s your purpose?
And Paul said, “I know
what the purpose is.”
He says, watch this.
If God has a–watch
this carefully.
If God has a purpose for
everything he allows in our
life, would you say is it a good
purpose or a bad purpose?
I didn’t get much
answer on that.
I do understand that.
Listen, what kind of God is he?
He is a good God, he’s a perfect
God, he’s an unconditionate
loving God, so that whatever he
allows in our life, there is a
specific purpose he has in mind,
and that purpose, listen, is not
only good for him,
but it’s good for us.
What did he say?
He said, “My God
causes all things.”
Now, what we do, we take out all
things and we interpret it.
To be sweet, loving, wealthy,
all these wonderful things.
Famous, and all this.
He causes all things, yes.
Pain, suffering, hardship.
We sort of misinterpret
that word.
What we–we put in there what
we want to happen.
My God causes all things, all
includes all, to work together
for my good because he loves us.
And so, when you think about
that, if you really and truly
believe that, listen, this is
painful, I don’t like it, but
somehow, according to what I
read in the scripture, God’s
working this thing out
for my good.
And then of course, he learned
that he could rejoice in the
midst of his adversity.
And I love Philippians because
it’s so many wonderful
verses here.
But look if you will in this
fourth chapter of Philippians.
Here’s what he says, he says,
“Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!”
He wrote in jail;
in a Roman prison.
And he’s talking about
rejoicing, why?
Because here’s what he learned,
all these things that had
happened to him, instead of
having a pity party and wanting
to break out of jail, and
getting somebody to rescue him,
and spending his days and nights
of crying, God, please rescue
me, please get me
out of this place.
What was he doing?
He was just taking all those
experiences and running them
over in his mind and his heart,
and gleaning and learning and
reaping the most richest of
rewards of who this God is
that he served.
So whatever adversity you’re
facing, most of the time you
can’t control it.
So you have to decide how you’re
going to think about it.
Are you going to think about it
as a bridge that God is
building for you?
Listen, to bring you into an
intimate relationship with Him
for which no man on earth
can create for you.
A relationship to Him that you
will never be able to fully
fathom all the days
of your life.
A relationship with Him for
which He died to make possible.
A relationship with Him that’ll
absolutely revolutionize your
life; equip you to be a strong
servant of God.
Or do you want to just have
pity parties?
Drink, carouse, sex, anything
to get your mind off of it?
And it’s interesting your mind
never gets off of it.
So that’s the devil’s approach.
Or you can take Paul’s approach.
This is a bridge and I’m going
to travel above all this because
I know what’s on the other side,
this indescribable, sweet,
precious, eternal relationship
with Jesus Christ.
That’s what it’s all about.
So look at your adversity
whatever it may be, and ask
yourself the question, God, how
have I been acting?
How have I been responding?
And let me just say this, you
may not be a Christian and you
think, What in the world is
all of this about?
Here’s what it’s about,
it’s about God,
getting your attention.
Sending you enough heartache and
pain and suffering that finally
it’ll drive you to Himself.
You can resist it.
You can rebel against it, but
only to your own hurt and pain.
What He wants is to for you to
recognize He created you for
Himself, not for yourself.
He wants you to confess your
sinfulness, your inadequacy and
rely upon Him to forgive you of
your sins through His Son Jesus
who died at the cross and paid
your sin debt in full.
Surrender your life to Him and
watch Him.
You say, Will that take away
all my adversity?
Not necessarily.
You–because you see, look, He
knows how much of that you need
to make you the person
He wants you to be.
But you do have two choices.
You can rebel or
you can surrender.
And that’s the best way and
that’s my prayer for you.
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