Viola Solid Rock Assembly
Speaking Through Pain
The last several weeks I had been, just something had just kind of been rolling over inside of me and I was thinking, you know, we've been talking about all year about how God speaks to us. And there was something I would just, I don't know if I heard someone say it or what, but it's just kind of been rolling around inside of me for a few weeks of, you know, God speaks through pain and grief. And when we're going through seasons of pain and grief, it seems like God speaks louder in those moments. And so, you know, I was just kind of thinking about that and how that when I'm hurting, it seems that God speaks and how pain sometimes shakes things up, right? And we talked about a couple weeks ago about how that there are times in our lives that just a change of scenery, changes perspective and a change of location, changes perspective. And sometimes when we get in those seasons of pain, it changes our perspective of what God is doing. And when I said, when we're reading the Bible and I was thinking about this and just going through it, thinking about people in the Bible who, you know, guess what, they were real life people with real life stories, with real problems, who experienced real pain, and God used it for his glory, right? But pain started in the Garden of Eden. It started there with one sinful decision, the consequences is laid out in Genesis chapter 3 verse 16, it says, then he said to the woman, "I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth, and you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." And to the man he said, "Since you listen to your wife and ate from the tree of whose fruit I command you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you, and all your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it." Pain in childbirth and painful toil to produce food was the effect of sin, right? The net effect is pain across the board, physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, and although pain is a direct consequence of sin, God can redeem, recycle, reuse pain for his glory. There's hope, right? There's hope, there's hope, and there's good news, guess what? In heaven there is no pain, it's a pain-free zone. Revelation 21, 4 says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, sorrow, or crying, or pain. All these things will be gone forever." You know, and I, thinking about pain and grief and people in the Scripture who went through pain and grief, you can't go far without thinking about Job. The dude experienced some pain, right? He experienced some grief. He experienced some heartache. And in Job chapter 1 at verse 13, it says, "One day when Job's sons and daughters are feasting at the older brother's house, a messenger arrived at Job's home with this news. Your oxen were plowing with the donkeys feeding beside them with the Sabians raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I'm the only one who escaped to tell you." And while he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news. "The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, a third messenger arrived with news. Three bands of Chaldean raiders have stolen your camels and killed all your servants. I am the only one who escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived. At this time I'm done with messengers arrived with this news. "Your sons and your daughters are feasting in your older brother's home at their older brother's house. Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides and the house collapsed on all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you." That's some bad news. Right after you get more bad news and you get a little bit more bad news and a little bit more. But verse 20, "Joe stepped and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship." I don't know if you get more bad news than Joe got in that moment, right? Your livelihood is over. He just lost your job. You walked in and they said, "You're fired. Done." And then you go a little bit longer and you've been planting this garden and you've been hoping that it's going to pay off and it's done. It's over. The fire burned it up. God, you let people fire me, steal my livelihood, and then you burned up my garden. All your wealth is gone. Your camels, your servants, everyone is gone. It's done. It's over. And you're sitting there and you're thinking, "How much worse could it get?" And then he comes in and says, "Oh, by the way, windstorm came, blew down the house where the kids were at and they're all dead. I'm the only one that got out." And it was bad news hit after hit, after hit, bad news after bad news after bad news, Joe lost everything. It appears that in one day his wealth, his livestock, his food source, his children, everything was lost. The immense pain and grief that he felt. I'm sure the grief was unbearable in that moment. And the most amazing thing about that whole little patch of scripture, the whole thing right there, his verse 20, and the last part of that verse when it says that he fell down and worshiped the Lord. After getting all this bad news, after all the terrible things, feel with grief, yet he worshiped the Lord. It's not an easy thing to do, right? It's not an easy thing to get down and begin to worship the Lord when you just had lost someone you love. It's not easy to get down and worship the Lord when you lost your job. It's not easy to get down and worship the Lord when your vehicles broke down and probably not going to run again. It's not easy to worship the Lord when everything that you've had you counted on, you depended on is gone. Your egg basket has been destroyed, your nest egg is gone, and he's worshiping the Lord. That's not easy. That's not easy to do. That's not easy to stand and worship the Lord in those moments when you've lost everything. And it seems like nothing's getting better, and it seems hopeless, and yet Job, here he is, worshiping the Lord. And then we see chapter 2, verse 7, he says, "So Satan left the Lord's presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot." So not only does the guy lost everything, now he looks hideous and he hurts. He's got pain because he's got boils all over him from head to foot, it says, and it says that Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he said among the ashes. And his wife said to him, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die." Why did God let her live? He killed all the rest of his family and left her to tell him to curse God and die. But Job replied, "You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. We've been getting these trucks, right? From convoy. We've gotten some good trucks, we've gotten some bad trucks, we've got some trucks that I'm like, "I said yes, and I wish I wouldn't have, but I'll never say no because I'm not going to say no because they might turn it down." But I told a guy, we were loading him out, a church pastor, I told the pastor, I said, "Look, you get the good stuff, but you also got to take the bad stuff too." Because there's some stuff down there that this is going to be kind of hard to get rid of. So you want the good, you got to take the bad. If you want the food, you got to take the masks, you want the food, you got to take the needle holders. Because we don't know what we're going to do with those. You got to take the good with the bad. And that's what Job was saying, essentially, we love it, we like it when God is blessing. We like it when things are going good. We don't like it when God begins to correct us. When God begins to tell us, "Hey, look, you're doing something wrong." We don't like that. We don't want the lumps. We want the glory, but we don't want the work. We want the revival, but we don't want to have to pray. We want God to do this, but we're not willing to fast for it. We want God to bless us, but we're not willing to be obedient when He asks us. We like it when God bless us, right? Oh, praise the Lord. God's blessing us. It's really good. And then He tells you to do something that you don't want to do, and you're like, "I am." Done with that. Abraham, God is blessing Abraham, blessing him over and above. Like God is everywhere he goes. God has blessed him. He gives him the son that he's promised him. And then he says, "Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son." And Abraham took the good with the bad. And he got up the next morning. The scripture says the next morning, he got up and set out on the way. And we know the end of the story that God provided a ram in the place of Isaac. But God wasn't asking him to sacrifice Isaac for him to sacrifice him. God was asking him to sacrifice Isaac to see if he would be willing, if he would be willing to give up the blessing. And sometimes God asks you to do things, and He's not asking you to do it just for you to do it. He's asking you to do it because He has something in store. And the reason that He's asking you to do it is He wants to know, are you willing? Do you trust Him? Job loses His health. And this dude is full of grief from losing literally everything. And now he's in pain because of the boils. And through all of it, through all of this, he's lost hope a little bit, right? Because if you keep reading it through Job after chapter two and through chapter two, the guy is literally losing hope. He doesn't want to keep going. He, in fact, asked God to kill him. But even in a grief-stricken pain filled with hopelessness, I mean, what do I have left to live for? He still had a sliver of joy. In Job chapter six verse 10, it says, "At least I can take comfort in this. Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One." One version says, "It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One." The true word for joy that's used right here is only used one time in Scripture. It's a rare joy. It's an extreme joy. It's joy that doesn't deny reality, but it does defy it. It's triumphant elation in the face of staggering loss. The most literal translation is to leap like a horse, so stones spark. It's not just jumping for joy. It's dancing on disappointment. With everything that happened to Job, he still took a small measure of pleasure despite the pain. Would he have changed his circumstances if he could? Absolutely. But he found joy in one simple fact that he didn't deny the words of the Holy One. In the midst of tough times, when we feel as if God has turned His back on us, what do we want to do? We want to turn our back on Him. But what we need to do is lean in and lean on Him. And that's what Job did. He didn't cut off. He didn't cut God off. He didn't turn His back on God. He didn't stop listening. He leaned into God. C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts in our pain." In those times of pain, sometimes, sometimes, not every time we go through pain, but sometimes when we're going through pain and tragedy and grief, God is trying to get our attention. And I hear people say this all the time, and it's a lie from the pit of hell. Because I hear people say all the time, God won't give you more than you can handle. That's completely incorrect. And if you are going to argue with me after service, then you bring me the scripture that says that. Because I can promise you, it is not there. You misinterpret 1 Corinthians 3-10. You misinterpret it because it doesn't say anything about what you can handle. It's talking about temptation, not what you can handle. It's incorrect. When people say that, they're wrong. And I don't care how many times your grandma said that or your pastor when your kid said that, they were wrong. They didn't come to make friends. I came to tell you the truth, and it's wrong. It's not there. Paul, in fact, says that he was overwhelmed beyond his ability. 2 Corinthians 1-8 says, "We thank you all to know, dear brothers and sisters, that the trouble we went through in the providence of Asia, we were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on God who raises the dead. If we never, if we never received more than we could bear, then what's the point in trusting God? We don't need him if we can bear at all. If he'll never give you any more than you can bear, you can handle, then why do we trust him? That's an anti-faith statement. I don't need faith if he never gives me more than I can bear. That's not how it works. That's a lie. We need him to go through things. We need him and we do go through things that we can't bear on our own. And it causes us to depend on him. It's in those times. It's in the middle of pain that God speaks to us. It's in the middle of trying times. It's in the middle of grief that God speaks to us. And it's in those moments of total and complete dependence that he speaks the most. God doesn't ask me to do easy things. It's kind of annoying sometimes. I'll just be honest with you. He's been speaking to me about different things that he wants me to do and how he wants me to do it. And last week he spoke to me about something and I was arguing with him and telling him that it wouldn't work. And he spoke to me clearer than I've heard him speak to me in months. He said, do you not trust me? I got the yes out of the way. I told him I would do it, but I'm still trying to figure out the how. And in the moment, in all of that, it's painful. It's grief. It's like God, what are you going to do here? Pain can be a professor, a counselor, and a life coach, but nothing gets our full attention like pain. Nothing. It breaks down false idols and purifies false motives, and it reveals where we need to heal, where we need to grow. It refocuses our priorities like nothing else. And pain is part of God's sanctification process in our lives. We go through pain in order to get us where we need to be. And we go through moments of complete dependence on God. So he can get us where he wants us to be. But if we're not willing to take the step, if we're not willing to do what he's asking us to do, can we truly trust him? It's not easy. It's not easy to trust him. If it was easy to trust him and do what he asked him to do, everybody be doing it. And obviously they're not, because we still have real world problems out here. And if everyone was doing what they were supposed to do, that God was asking them to do, we wouldn't have some of those problems. The foster care system is a joke in the United States, and it would not be in the situation that was doing it if the church was doing what they were supposed to do. But somewhere along the way, we lost what we were supposed to be doing. And I'm not saying that you need to run out and adopt 14 kids. I'm not saying that. If God speaks to your heart, though, you better be ready. Many of the heroes in faith endured dark nights of pain. Job lost everything. There is nothing that Job didn't lose except for an ag and wife. And three horrible friends. They weren't friends. I would have told those guys, "Y'all I'm going home if you're going to talk like this to me." Many of the heroes walked through dark times. Sarah wrestled with infertility. Moses was a fugitive for 40 years. David had a father-in-law who tried to kill him. Mary Magdalene was demon-possessed. Peter struggled with stealth doubt after he denied even knowing Jesus. And Paul had memories of murder seared into his soul. They all had one thing in common, though. They heard God's whisper in their darkest hours, and they all came out on the other side of his grace. I am certainly not suggesting that all pain is caused by God. I'm not suggesting that at all. In fact, pain is a result of the curse, and it's most often the symptom of sin. But sometimes it's a gift from God. It's the language that can't be ignored. You can ignore other things, but you can't ignore pain. You can't ignore pain. I was reading a guy's story this week. He was telling this story about how he had had some weird symptoms and just stuff wasn't right in his body, but he was just like, "Oh, it's just a little bug, whatever." And he's a pastor, and he said, "There were different things and different signs that I just ignored." He said, "But I couldn't ignore pain." He said, "It was the most intense pain that I've ever felt in my life, and it was the only time that I've ever started a sermon and couldn't finish because of pain." They rushed him to the emergency room, and they ended up having to remove over a foot of intestine that had bust. He was in intensive care. There was a long story within this. And he said, "But it was the pain that saved my life." It was the pain that saved my life. Pain cannot be ignored. When we're in pain, we can't ignore it. And no matter how hard we try, you can't leave the Bible on your bedside table untouched. And you can ignore desires, doors, promptings, and people. You can ignore his voice, but you can't ignore pain. And even though pain is part of the curse, that doesn't mean that God can't redeem it, recycle it or use it and speak through it. When pain creeps in and it's a draw to it for us to lean in, it requires a complete dependence on him. And in those moments, he will speak to us. You talked to someone who had real brushes with death and come out of those moments. And when they come out of those moments, they come out with a clarity because in those moments, God speaks. In those moments, not necessarily in the middle of it, but as they're coming out, God begins to speak loud and clear. In December 2017, December 19th, I almost lost my life. This is driving down a home from the peace property that we owned in Humphrey, where we were pastoring. And I flipped my truck into the creek. I was under water when I hit. I came out of a hole smaller than one of these carpet tiles, much smaller, actually. When I was coming out of the hole, when I had enough to go out the hole, I felt my window bust when we hit. And that was where I was going out. My feet got hung up. I had knee boots on. And my feet got hung up and I could see the top of the water, so I couldn't get there. And in that moment, I was like, "God, I'm ready." And immediately, my boots came off. And I came out, Hattie Mae was in the vehicle, and I heard her scream out. And I got around, and through a series of events, there was another person that heard it, came and helped, and we got her out. The weeks that followed that, God began to speak to my heart about a lot of things. But it's something inside of me changed. And I've been different ever since, and there was something that happened in that moment when God was speaking to me. And He spoke some things that I've seen come to pass and some things that I haven't yet. But when He was speaking to me, it was loud and clear. There was no distraction. There was no anything else because I'm just thankful that I made it out. Broke four ribs, tore all the ligaments in my left shoulder. There were some painful days. I refused to take the pain medication because I didn't want to get addicted. And God began to heal me. And honestly, within a week, I had full mobility in my shoulder, which the doctors were completely surprised. But I say all that to say that in that moment, God began to speak to me because I was dealing with some real pain. And those moments of loss, those moments of grief, God speaks. Are we listening? Are we listening? Are we listening to what God is saying? This morning is not that you don't experience pain, but rather that when you do, God will speak to you through it clearly. You're going to experience pain. It's how you respond and react to it that matters. Let's get everyone to stand your feet. I don't know what you're going through right now. I don't know what's going on in your life, but I would venture to say that there are some people in this room that are dealing with some real pain. They're dealing with some real grief that are wondering how you're in a situation that seems hopeless, that you're wondering how you're going to make it through. This morning is time to lean into God. So if you're here this morning and you're going through a situation that seems hopeless, if you're going through a situation that's painful, that you're grieving, I want to invite you to come. I want to pray with you. I want to believe with you that God will see you through it. Maybe it's physical pain. Maybe it's emotional pain. Maybe it's something else. They say I'm going through something right now. I'm going through a situation. I'm going through some circumstances that just, they seem hopeless and I need God to move. I want to invite you to come. Don't miss it. Don't let pride hold you back. Lord, I just thank you right now. I thank you right now. I thank you for the ones that responded. Lord, I know that there are ones that are out there that still need to respond. Lord, that are going through some stuff that they need you to move in. Lord, I just pray that you just move. I pray that you move and you begin to touch and you begin to heal hearts and lives. That you begin to move and you begin to touch. Oh, we just thank you right now. I thank you right now. Lord, I just pray that you just move across this place right now. If you feel led to come and pray around these altars, feel free to do so. These altars are open. If you feel led to come and pray for the ones that are here, feel free to do so. [BLANK_AUDIO]