The Problem and Purpose of Pain: Purposes of Pain, Part 2

Purpose number six, God positioning us. This is pain that accomplishes a greater good. So God may be putting you in a painful situation or sending you on a painful journey, not so much because you need your character shaped or you need to be disciplined, but God's going to get you to a place where you can help somebody else. he's going to position you to do a greater good. And we see this in Scripture.

One of the great stories is the story of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery. He ended up being imprisoned and going through all sorts of difficult circumstances, but ultimately came to high position of authority in the nation of Egypt and was there to prepare for a famine, to save people's lives. And lo and behold, his own family, including the brothers who had betrayed him many years before, show up in Egypt to be saved. And Joseph tells his brothers, when they finally realize who one another is, he says, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. been redirected through pain to do something great for God and to help other people.

You see this over and over in Scripture. The persecution of the early church in Jerusalem, they were all clustered, the early church all clustered in the city of Jerusalem. But the gospel of Jesus Christ needs to get out to the world. But they're all staying right here in Jerusalem. You know, you like your home church, you like the way the pews are arranged, you like the music there.

So you keep going to that church and you won't get outside the walls. So God says, I guess I'm going to have to do something. So He sends persecution. And lo and behold, the church gets scattered throughout Judea and Samaria and with the church goes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another example, Priscilla and Aquila.

I love this one. Priscilla and Aquila lived in Rome. But then Claudius the emperor because there are all sorts of disputes and disturbances going on among the Jews. Well, you know, Aquila and Priscilla say, Well, where would you like to go live? Well, they end up, they choose where they want to live, Corinth.

And lo and behold, on the day that the Apostle Paul shows up in Corinth, he needs a job. He's a tent maker, you know, as are Priscilla and Aquila. He happens to find a Christian couple who are tent makers in Corinth.

God is sovereign. Huh? But Priscilla and Quilla got positioned to help Paul. I love that story. Paul's imprisonment.

You know, a lot of people were bemoaning Paul's imprisonment. His first Roman imprisonment. And he wrote a letter to the church at Philippi. on guys. You know, this imprisonment is really good. The gospel is being spread. And in fact, because I'm in prison, those who are preaching the gospel are more bold now. They're preaching it.

And so God positioned Paul there so that the gospel could be advanced and people could be emboldened. God is moving in so many ways. We don't know how the dots are going to connect in this life. Priscilla and Aquila had not a clue when Claudius threw them out of Rome. That there was a guy named Paul who happened to be a tent maker who would end up in Corinth.

But God brought it all together.

Seventh purpose. God tenderizing us. This is an important one. This is pain that increases our compassion for others. This is how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

There is no one better to talk to someone experiencing the ravages of chemotherapy than someone who's been there. There's no one better to talk to a parent who's lost a child than someone who's been there. And I think God puts us through these experiences sometimes to give us great compassion for people who go through similar circumstances. And he motivates us to want to reach out to them. I must tell you that my level of compassion as a lawyer before the loss of Joshua was probably almost immeasurable.

meaning not big, meaning you couldn't measure it because it was so low. But God breaks your heart and shatters your heart. It does something. It softens you and it makes you begin to realize how much pain there is. A lot of you either have found or will find your ministry in your pain.

The pain you are going through or have gone through, you're going to end up using that to help someone who's going through that same pain. to guide them, to support them, to give them advice and counsel, to come alongside of them, you're going to do it. It happens. Louise and I have talked to many folks who've lost children.

God just does that. He prepares for those things. Okay, purpose number eight, God displaying us. Our response to pain as an example for others. sometimes we're models for others about how to deal with pain the scriptures talk about this James 5 talks about an example of patience in the face of suffering take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord and then he talks about Job's perseverance

through very difficult times and I don't know that Job was patient I think the Greek translation here is right. Job persevered through painful circumstances despite the fact many told him he ought to just curse God. He didn't do that. He persevered through the pain and became a model. And Job would even say, though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. Despite what his wife said to him, curse God and die. Despite what his friends tried to get him to do, Job said, I'm going to trust God If he wants to kill me, so be it.

But I'll hope in him the whole time. That's a great model for us. One last one, 1 Peter 2, Jesus Christ. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. And how did Jesus respond to pain?

Even though he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth, when they hurled insults at him, he didn't retaliate when he suffered. He made no threats. trusted himself to him who judges justly. Great example. So maybe somebody's watching you.

Maybe you're the example for someone of how to deal with very, very painful circumstances. Well, we've got four more purposes we're going to hit, and then we'll have some stories that we will listen to. So let's move on with our purposes here. Purpose number nine is God shining through us. And this is pain that is uniquely designed to give God glory. Now I think God can get glory through other purposes that we've talked about, but this is pain that we see God uniquely getting glory. For example, the man born blind from birth, John

Jesus said this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. You remember the disciples wanted to know, well, who sinned? Surely somebody had to sin in order for this man to have been born blind. Maybe it was him, maybe it was his parents. And Jesus says, no, this situation is so that we can see the work of God in this man's life.

And Jesus heals this man who was born blind from birth. I think we see God getting glory through someone like Job again when he says, The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. And if you remember, Job had suffered terrible loss of children and so forth. Yet, he says, may the name of the Lord be praised.

When everything's been stripped away, you have nothing left. are all gone, but you still say, May the name of the Lord be praised. Wow, what glory does God get in that instance? I think it's huge. Purpose number 10, God redirecting us.

I think this is a particularly important purpose. This is pain that focuses us on the eternal rather than the temporal. Again, to think not just with a narrow lens view of life, not just about the here and now, but it makes us open our gaze and take a wider lens view of life. And here's my illustration.

If eternity stretches from one end to the other, and when we're talking about eternity, we're really timeless. And it's hard for us to think in timeless ways, but eternity in a timeless sense stretches from one end to the other. Well, how much of that eternity do we occupy? In the scheme of things, you know, we are in effect a blip. You know, in a sense, it's horrible, if you think of it one way, that Joshua died at such a young age.

But if he had lived to age 70, it would have been, you know, just part of that blip, in a sense. It's a very short amount of time. Yes, sir? That's Methuselah. Yeah, that's a big blip, right.

Okay, that's a, yeah, we would be, I had to make it where we could see it and still some couldn't. I was trying to get something we could see. But I'm trying to draw something here. We fret and we wring our hands when somebody dies at age 25. Well, I understand the sense of loss, but in sort of a timeless sense, I mean, it was a mere second earlier that they died.

You know, the reality is, if we start to take a big picture view, if I could have talked to Joshua right after his death,

and if he had had the ability to decide whether he would come back and live here on earth or stay where he was, if I'd had the chance to say, Joshua, I really want you to come back. Man, I'm hurting. I want you. I want to hold you. I want to be with you.

Dad, I love you, man, but I'll be here when you get here. Because, and again, we've got to remember our theology, death is not the end. And at least for the believer, death is great. Wow!

Now, the process of dying is hard. Nobody wants to go through that process of decline or difficulty or pain. But the moment of death itself, when we finally go from this life to the next, for at least the believer, wow, let's don't forget our theology when people die. So that's my blip. Now, God sometimes sends us pain to make us think in this big way.

And I think Paul begins to capture this, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far as I outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And God is sometimes saying to us, why are you so worried and tied up about the stuff and the daily worries of life? It doesn't matter.

Paul said, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. So present sufferings are sufferings, but boy, there's something yet to come. I love the way C.S. Lewis talks about this in The Problem of Pain. And this is a little bit of a longer quote.

I've got it all here, so let's just read it together. Lewis says, my own experience is something like this. path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I'm overwhelmed and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times.

I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart. That my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps by God's grace I succeed and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys. God has had me for but 48 hours and then only by dent of taking everything else away from me.

that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over. I shake myself as dry as I can, race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness if not in the nearest manure heap at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless. Isn't that

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

adapted a prayer from a book called A Diary of Private Prayer by John Bailey. And this was her prayer at her funeral.

Okay. I think it's right the way it is. That's right, though it is.

Yeah, just is a good word, too. God is good and just. In English, that would be okay. But justice is a good word, too. That's a good word, too.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

If instead of happiness we have today suffered any disappointment or defeat, if there has been any sorrow where we have hoped for joy or sickness where we have looked for help, Give us grace to accept it from thy hand as a loving reminder that this is not our home. God doesn't want us attached to earth. But sometimes without pain we get very attached.

Purpose 11, God protecting us. Pain or death that spares us from evil. There's a great verse in Isaiah, Isaiah 57, 1, that says this, The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart. Devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.

I don't know had Joshua lived what his life would have been like I would hope it would have been a great joyous life but I don't know that there's a lot of hurt and pain in this world and I don't know but who knows maybe God took him as an infant

in order to spare him from evil.

Something that might have happened had he lived. So sometimes, again, it's God's grace that he takes someone out of the world potentially for this purpose to spare them from a greater evil that may be out there. But again, we see this much of life. He sees this much. And we finite creatures need to be very cautious in challenging the ways of an infinite God who doesn't see but just a moment.

He gazes into eternity. And sometimes I think this is a purpose. And my final purpose, God taking us home. Pain that gives us rest and reward.

Most likely, for everybody in this room, there's only one way we get to go home. we're going to go through some pain and pass from this life to the next so that sometimes is the purpose of pain those who walk up rightly Isaiah says enter into peace they find rest as they lie in death or 2 Timothy 4 8 the apostle Paul says now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all appearing. And as the Apostle Paul also declared to live as Christ, to die is gain. It's profitable, it's helpful, it's to my benefit to die. Now the only way I can say to die is gain is if I can first say to live as Christ. One follows the other.