In The Midst Of Adversity

Through adversity, God is able to accomplish so much in our lives, if we will only trust Him and seek His purposes. Dr. Stanley describes the qualities God is building in us through adversity: unshakable faith, unwearied patience, increased courage, and purity.

What was broken, what you messed up, what you mishandled, God has another chance coming. You may have thrown it away, but He knows how to put it back together.

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In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor.
Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Next on in touch, in the midst of adversity.
Adversity is not really a choice.
If it were, we’d all say, no, thank you. We’d just take it some other way.
It’s not a choice, but It is a reality because we live in a fallen world.
And because there is sin and disobedience and wickedness, wherever you turn, there’s going to be adversity.
And, we’re all going to experience it at 1 time of the event my in our life.
And sometimes it’s many times and once in a while I meet somebody who says, you know what?
My life has just been 1 long trail of adversity.
Well, this is the third message in this series, and so I want to clarify what we mean by adversity.
It is a condition of suffering and hardship involving anguish, pressure, trials, heartaches, disappointments, and of course many other aspects of life that cause us discomfort in some way.
So we’ve all been there. We’ve all experienced adversity in 1 way or the other.
And we would all like to avoid it if at all possible, but, it’s not possible to avoid it.
Because we said we live in a fallen world.
Now if you avoid all all possibilities of adversity, you may miss some of the best things in life.
You say, well, now how can adversity, which causes me pain, hardship, heartache, anguish, and all its suffering.
How can that bring me something good?
Well, I want you to think about some people in the scripture, for example, who went through adversity, but on the other side of that experience how god worked in their life.
He still works that way. That is god has never changed the way he operates. He knows what he
wants to accomplish in our lives. And he knows exactly what it’ll take. He
he never condones sin and disobedience and rebellion, but in spite of the fact that he doesn’t condone it, if we respond correctly, he will use it for our good.
So let’s just think about some people in the scripture who went through some terrible adversity, but look what god did.
Look at Joseph, for example,
Look at all the
betrayal, the the hardship, the heartache, the punishment he suffered But look how he ended up second to pharaoh in Egypt.
Would he say to us afterwards he was worth every bit of it? Yes, he would. No question about it.
Think about Moses, for example, all the hardship he went through.
But look what happened in his life Would he say it was worth it all? Yes, he would.
Think about David, for example. How many years he ran from king saul?
And yet he ended up being the king, the most notable king, the king when you think about the kings of the old testament David above all the rest stands high.
Then when you think about women, for example, what about Esther?
Difficult times tragic times and yet god used her to save, the Hebrew people.
And then, of course, if you were to ask Daniel, Daniel, all the things you’ve been through, you’ve taken away from your homeland and brought over here to Babylon.
Would you go through
this again? And I’m sure he would say, yes, because look at where he ended up.
He ended up beside the king. That is God used him in
the most awesome ways. We’re still talking about him.
And so all adversity doesn’t end up with suffering and hardship and pain, and I think about the disciples, for example, all that they went through, but look what we do.
We talk about
Not just Peter James and John, John, but Thomas and all
the rest of them. And when they say it was worth going through those times with Jesus after it was all over with, yes, they would.
Well, what about, Mary and Martha, for example, to bring it down to 1 simple family.
And, they’d been friends of Jesus for a long time.
And then at the most critical moment of their relationship, Jesus does not show up.
And then when they say
it was worth it all, when when lazarus came walking out of
the tomb, yes. So we would have to say that all adversity is not bad.
It depends upon how we respond to it.
So whatever you’re going through today, wherever you are in some realm of adversity in your family, among your children financially at your job, whatever it might be, whatever it may be, it could be that it is a part of 1 of god’s greatest blessings in your life.
So it depends upon how we respond to it and, in that way, that’s gonna determine it.
So I want you to turn to second.
It’s gonna hinge the chapter I wanna keep turning to in the twelfth chapter because it’s such a perfect example of the apostle Paul of all the wonderful things that he did and you think about all the adversities he went through which he lists them in chapter 11 And in spite of his prayers and asking god to take away all of this, listen to what he says about himself in verse 7 of chapter 12.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason to keep me from exalting myself.
That is the awesome things he went through to keep him from exalting himself.
There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, whatever it may have been, a messenger of Satan to torment me Not make me feel bad, torment me to keep me from exalting myself concerning this.
I implored I didn’t just talk to the lord.
I implored the lord 3 times that it might leave me.
And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness.
It’s easier to read that than to live by amen.
He says he says this grace of god is sufficient for me for power is perfected in weakness Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses with insults, distresses, persecutions, prisons, and so forth.
With difficulties of Christ’s sake, for he says, what I’ve discovered, when I am weak, then am I strong?
So what I want us to think about, we responded versed in 2 ways. 1 way is the fact that, some people just even though we’re talking about believers now, some people When they go through adversity, their response is just walk away from god.
I trusted him as my savior. I believed him. I’ve read the Bible. I’ve prayed.
I’ve done all these things, but I want you to look what’s happened to me.
So their choice is to walk away.
And what they begin to think is that they begin to doubt the reality of god.
If god is really who he says he is, What the Bible says is he would he wouldn’t dare let this happen, so they walk away.
They doubt him. A second response they have is they wanna blame god for not preventing it from happening.
In other words, if if god really loved me, he would not allow this to happen to my family, to my finances, to my job, to my future, to my reputation, whatever it might be.
If he’s really who he says is, He wouldn’t allow it
to happen so it’s god’s fault.
And sometimes when a person can’t blame their husband or wife, or blame someone else. They wanna blame god.
And so they wanna walk away.
Because if god was who he says is, that he wouldn’t allow this and and so they want to point that finger at god.
Then Some people just turned their back on god permanently.
And I’ve met a few people over the years.
Things have happened in their life, and I remember 1 young man He had a beautiful family and his his son, young young lad.
He must have been about only about 7 years of age, was the joy of his life.
And he died suddenly.
In spite of all of our prayers, all about talking about how god good had been good to him, How god had given him a great family.
He had plenty of everything. He never could accept the fact that god took his son.
He grew very, very bitter about it.
And so no matter what happened, he blamed god And he walked away from church, first of all, then he walked away from his family.
I never heard from him again, and he was a church.
Every son did sitting down in a s sitting down in a center section where I knew him.
He was a fine man. But that was an adversity in his life. He just could not accept.
Some people’s responses, they say, you know what?
Don’t give me that Bible business anymore because here’s the promises in the Bible.
They’ll that god does not fulfill his promises and so they just want to close the book.
Well, do you believe the word of god? I used to Do you believe the word of god?
It’s not always true. In other words, people close the Bible. They just say, you know what?
And that’s not who That’s what it says, but that’s not what happens because their expectations versus their partial knowledge of how god operates causes them to close the word of god.
Then, of course, here’s what happens.
When people get disappointed and God doesn’t match up to their expectation, what they do is they begin to nurture their hurt and their anger.
And their hurt grows deeper and deeper and their anger gets stronger and stronger until they not only are they miserable They make the people they live with miserable, the people they work with miserable.
In fact, you don’t even wanna see them coming.
Because their attitude has grown to such rejection of things that are godly and righteous and they’re blaming god and they’re blaming the Bible.
The Bible is not true. And and god is allowed this hurting in my life.
And so what happens, sometimes that person that they don’t get over it, they live with a bitter spirit.
How many of you have ever met somebody who is bitter? Yes. You know why?
Because they can’t hide it. You can’t hide bitterness.
You may hide some hurt in your life or things that have gone on in your life, but bitterness is like poisoning the bloodstream in your body.
It affects every single thing about you.
It affects your ability to smile. It affects your
ability to love, to accept, It affects every aspect of your life, bitterness because of some adversity that happened to you in life, and you grow bitter.
And it probably is the reason for a lot of divorces.
A person you’re at so bitter the other person says I can’t live with this any longer.
I’m not justifying it. I’m just saying that’s oftentimes what happens.
And then the worst thing is that people who grow bitter like this, let adversity get the best of them They waste their life.
They walk away from god to close the word of god.
They’re not interested in this and that and the other. And whatever god may have planned for, and watch this.
Whatever god may have planned for them in that in that good awesome plan was this act of adversity that god allowed to either purge something out of them that shouldn’t have been there.
Grow them up, mature them, teach them something.
Instead of responding correctly, they decide no, then they walk away and they’re and they absolutely waste their life.
Adversity is not always bad.
And adversity is a tool that god uses So we have 2 major responses.
1 of us to walk away from god, and the second response is this.
In the midst of that adversity, People oftentimes grow into a deeper relationship with god.
So all of us fall into 1 of these 2 categories.
And this first category is walking away from god.
Or secondly, we walk into a deeper relationship with god. And what happens? Well, Here’s what happens.
We develop unshakable faith because in that adversity, god proves himself to us over and over and over again, that he’s still there.
He’s still trustworthy. We can believe that he’ll keep his promises And what happens is the adversity tests our faith.
And so people who decided in spite of what I’m going through, I’m gonna trust god.
I’m gonna persevere. I’m gonna keep moving no matter what.
And so when we allow adversity to drive us into a relationship with God, deeper relationship. That’s 1 thing.
A second thing is this. It enables us to have unwearied patience.
That is we don’t we don’t get impatient.
In other words, if I know that this is of god and I’m trusting him, he will give us the patience to endure whatever we are facing.
And I think probably 1 of
the greatest tests about trusting god and their patience is the fact that no matter what’s going on and how painful it may be and how we’d like to separate it and get get rid of it, we patiently wait for god to change it.
And we know in our hearts that he is never going to string us out beyond what he knows that we’ll have the patience provided by him to see us through it no matter what.
And that’s a very, very important point because patience is not easy. It wasn’t easy with the apostle Paul.
He’s had 3 times. He prayed, And that doesn’t mean he just got on his knees and prayed 3 short prayers, but these no doubt were long prolonged periods of agonizing before god.
Third thing that happens is this.
We’re walking into a deeper relationship with God. Something happens to our courage.
We begin to have unwavering courage because we know what in the past when we’ve been in difficult situations God gave us the courage to hang in there.
No matter how difficult it was, how threatening our loss or whatever it might be, And so what happens?
It builds courage. It builds faith. It builds patience in our life.
If we didn’t have any adversity, we wouldn’t know what we could do.
It’s adversity that builds courage. I’m gonna trust him.
I’m gonna wait for him. I’m gonna believe him and I’m claiming the victory no matter what I may be hurting at the moment.
I mean, I like what’s going on, but I know in my heart that god’s not gonna let me down.
And in 1 of my favorite verses, you’ve heard me say it many times, and Joshua 1 9 be strong and
of a good what?
That’s right. Fear not because god’s gonna be with us in the midst of everything.
Fear not be strong and of a good courage for the lord your god is with you wherever he leads you.
It’s not on the word of god and the promises of god It is the it is proof of the promises of god.
Here’s what he’s done in your life. So we said you have 2 choices now.
You can walk away from god or you can walk into a deeper relationship with god.
We’re just going to affect your patience, your faith, and your courage.
And of course, it always makes us purer in heart. That is something happens to our relationship
to the lord. And holiness becomes more than a word.
And if I ask you do
you live a holy life A lot of people wouldn’t even know what we mean
by a holy life. A holy life does not mean
a perfect life. Because nobody can live a perfect life because we still have that old tendency of gentleness in our lives that’ll be there till Jesus calls us home.
We can live an obedient life, which means that most of
the time, and when I say most of the time, I mean most and most and most of the time.
We do the right thing. And if somebody asks you, are you living a holy life more than likely?
I’m not saying it’s true of you saints right here.
But more than likely, you would say, well, I’m not I don’t say that I’m holy.
Well, why not? You Listen. God has forgiven you of your sin.
The spirit of god is living within you. Your name is written in the lamb’s book of life.
He is your savior, your lord, your master, your helper, your encourager.
Why can’t you live a holy life?
It doesn’t mean sinless, but it means 1 who is given to him totally and completely as best you know how with all of your heart, you have no desire to sin against god.
And so god uses adversity and hardship and pain in our life to get us to think and right.
I’m a child of god. I’m to live a godly life.
In other words, living a godly life, listen, that’s the natural way. For a believer to live.
And so if I’m
gonna live a god to life, I have to give up sin.
And somebody says, well, how long can you live without sin?
You will know the answer to that same man.
You don’t wanna know. How long do if if you wanna know the answer to this, How long can I live
without sin, say amen? As long as you choose to.
As long as you choose to. You don’t have to sin.
Well, you don’t well, you say, well, But you know, I saw something that made me lustful.
Well, don’t look. If you think that’s gonna make don’t don’t look, If you see something that you think that you could pick that up and nobody’d ever see it, walk away.
Now it’s watch this. Sin is a choice.
It’s a bad choice. It’s a choice that separates us in our fellowship from god.
And in his work and will and purpose and plan for our life.
He has the best for us.
An adversity is god’s, 1 of god’s ways of doing what, molding us into his own likeness.
Holyness righteousness. That’s a part of living the Christian life. When I have the right response,
I’m gonna get in the word of god.
When adversity comes, the first thing I’m gonna do is open this book and say, what lord?
What are you trying to say
to me? And 1 of the things I love my my personal devotional book is the living Bible translation because it’s simple to understand.
And for me personally, I jot down on the edge of my Bible things
I think the Lord has said.
And sometimes when I need a certain word of encouragement, I know exactly what a turn.
And sometimes I’ll look at a verse that I have 6 dates down by that
means I needed it 5, 6 times before. And so there’s something about living with the word of god.
I don’t know what you call precious in your possessions.
But I can tell you that’s the most precious thing you own. It’s the
only guidebook there is to get you to heaven. Here’s the voice of god in in human print.
This is the way to live. This is the way
to look every single adversity in the face and say yes. Because I’m going to do it god’s way.
I’m going to follow him. And whatever he wants to do in my life, to answer, yes, god.
I want you to have you away because whatever your goal is
of my life, that’s my goal.
If it takes pains, suffering, and heartache, whatever it might be, according to your word, here’s what you said, and that’s what I’m going
with. Now listen, we’re gonna face adversity. There’s there’s nobody who is beyond it.
So knowing that it’s gonna happen, just make a wise choice today. Lord,
I want you to turn the adversities that you’re allowing my life to making me a real saint.
I wanna be a godly person. I want to be somebody that you can use.
I want to be somebody that looks a little bit like your son Jesus. Who acts like him?
Who responds like he did? I wanna make the right decision about adversity.
You made Paul an awesome saint and who’s blessed us for these thousands of years.
And god, I want you to make me that kind of saint.
Not that I would write as he wrote, but I would just be the kind of child of god that would attract other people
to the lord Jesus Christ. Who is my savior and my life.
Well, you have a choice. Some of you
are suffering adversity unlike anything probably I would even know about. But I can tell you this.
God knows where you are. He’s there with you in that adversity.
He will do exactly what he promised to do.
He will help you keep you, give you the patience, give you the faith, give you the courage, give you the love for him that will able you to endure it until he’s finished with that.
In order to make you the kind of person he wants you to be, here’s the choice.
My choice is to yield to that adversity knowing that he’s got something good in mind.
Or I can turn away from him and waste my life. And that’s not what you want.
You see, we only have 2 choices in life.
We can either live our life the way we wanna live it and just refuse to give God a chance.
We can acknowledge the fact that we’ve sinned against god And that, and this god in whom we believe and trust, the god of the Bible, He sent his son Jesus to the cross to die on the cross for our sins and explain that this way.
The shedding of Jesus blood on the cross paid our sin debt in full.
And the moment you ask him to forgive you of your sin, and you don’t make any promise, oh, I’m gonna be a perfect person.
No, you’re not. He’s asking you to surrender your life to him, accept the death of his son as payment for your sin.
Become 1 of his children.
And as you have had to grow up your children, he’ll grow you up.
And when you allow him to grow you up with the adversity, it’s the difficult, it’s
the hardship, the pain, all
of a space. He’ll make you a trophy.
You will be like a jewel to almighty god.
That is you will shine forth as a saint, not perfect, but as a saint, not sinless, but holy.
He will bless you in ways that you could never imagine.
That’s who he is. That’s the kind of god that we have.
And I trust that if you’ve never trusted him, that you will right now where you are.
And father, how precious you are to be so patient with us.
To not only forgive us of our sins, but to cleanse us sanctify us, make us holy.
May we look at adversity both ways?
As challenges to who we are and what we are becoming.
And as a pathway to become the person you want us to be.
I pray that every person who hears this message will look at themselves, look at the things that are troubling them.
Acknowledge that you are the 1 true god, and that you will join them in their adversity.
To help them through it no matter what.
Thank you for being that kind of a loving mother
is our prayer in Jesus’ name.
Amen.