A Bend In The Road - Part 1

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So if you give in the fall being generous refreshing with a true cool drink all summer sky with your text, multipart lesions on home.how you use the free Christian media Turning Point. If the current apartment or anything is there trouble can come without warning and turn life upside down. Jeremiah begins a series of calls upon to examine how God can use these disruptions to bring out blessings message bend in the road friends. We are in the month of June were in the third or fourth month of our experience with the coronavirus. Many of us are still sheltering at home and were trying to figure out what the future looks like. These are the scriptures I believe are the most relevant to help us during these times, and were going to go back and pick up some of the material that I studied during the time I was coming out of my cancer bounce back some years ago. Those days were the days when I learn more about what were going through right now than I ever have learned in any other time in my life. So it seems right to marry.

What's happening now with what I learned and so today were to talk about a bend in the road and the key phrase in this message is a this rock moment and it would you not say that this is not been a disruptive moment. This is been a disruptive several months, and the disruption isn't going away like we thought it might right away were going to have to live through some of this, what are we supposed to learn during this time and material that you're going to be listening to is available to you on CD and you can get all of this to help review again and again what to do during this time, and how to look forward to the future with hope in your heart to forget during this month were making available as our special resource. This brand-new book shelter in God. Your refuge in times of trouble. How to get through this time and stay centered on the things that God wants you to stay centered on Santa gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of June and simply say please send me the book sheltering God. We want you to have this hope in this help as soon as possible. Let's get started with the first lesson is called a bend in the road when I returned from the Mayo Clinic on top of the pile of mail was a brand-new book that had just been released from Nelson publishers written by a friend of mine by the name of Gordon MacDonald.

The book was sent to me as many are from the publishers and I was intrigued by the title of the book. It's called the life God blesses many of you will remember Gordon MacDonald as the author of the best-selling book ordering your private world in the book that was sent to me that I received today I returned home Gordon writes with great meeting about the things God uses to bring blessing into the lives of his servants, and to make them a life that God can bless in one chapter he coined the term to describe one of God's most often used and least understood tools in the process he calls this tool a disruptive moment and according to him, disruptive moments are those unanticipated events, most of which one would easily have chosen to avoid. Had it been possible, he added. We don't like disruptive moments. They are too often associated with pain and inconvenience failure and humiliation, disruptive moments are like bends in the road that we cannot see beyond and we don't know what to do with Malcolm Muggeridge summarize this thought in the conversation that is recorded between him and William Buckley. He said as an old man, Bill.

Looking back on one's life. It's one of the things that strikes you most forcibly that the only thing that's talking on anything is suffering and affliction, not success, not happiness is not anything like that.

The only thing that really teaches one what life is about the joy of understanding the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies. The only things that Muggeridge is suffering and affliction, Alexander Solzhenitsyn also knew something of disruptive moments when he wrote about the time he spent in the Gulag in prison. He said it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states nor between classes, between political parties, either right through every human heart. And through all human hearts and he wrote so. Bless you, prison bless you for having been in my life. David Burnham has had his own disruptive moments, but in one of the messages that he gave. He spoke of a very early disruptive moment in his college career. He said and I quote the football was my God, and one day in the championship game.

I was carrying the football into the line and was hit so hard that I was knocked unconscious. They had to carry me off the field and to an ambulance behind the stadium and the first thing I heard he said as I came to was the crowd roaring for another ballcarrier.

My God was in another man's arms and the crowd was on to other heroes and he said at that moment my whole life changed, disruptive moments. It's more than a bump in the road.

It's a pothole when you hit a bump in the road and you have friends all around.

You need to tell them a little bit about it and then go on down the road and we shall do that but I think it's very instructive for me. Just open my heart to you and let you know the things that God has been teaching me from his word things which I probably wouldn't have studied or even been motivated to learn about had I not a bend in the road and had a disruptive moment in my life. Other two passages that God has impressed upon my heart are easy to remember because they're both 12 chapters the 12th chapter of second Corinthians and the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews and in the 12th chapter of second Corinthians. We shall begin our study and you follow along in your Bible if you will, but you have to follow closely because I'm going to read from the message which is a paraphrase of this because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so that I would get a big head. I was given the gift of handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's Angel did his best to get me down.

What he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty. First, I didn't think of it as a gift and begged God to remove it three times. I did that and then he told me, my grace is enough. It's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer. These limitations that cut me down to size, abuse, accidents, oppositions, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over and so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. In second Corinthians chapter 12 there is a pattern that is also exactly the same in Hebrews chapter 12. I want to give you four or five points that are exactly alike in both passages and then make some application to our hearts follow along and I will just do this quickly. Make a few comments as we pass along the way and then will move rapidly to Hebrews chapter 12, the first thing you notice as you begin to study. Second Corinthians chapter 12 is the purpose of a disruptive moment. Notice what Paul wrote in verse seven, lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations now. This passage describes a moment in Paul's life when he had just had the opportunity of a heavenly experience. We have very little information about it. In fact, as Paul writes about it in the first six verses of second Corinthians 12. He seems rather reluctant even to put himself in the context of the experience. He says there was a man I knew this man want to say it's him, he says, whether in the body or out of the body.

I can't say he doesn't want to get too specific, but what he does know is this that on a given occasion because of an appointment from God. Paul had been lifted up to see the glories of heaven as no man had ever seen before.

Can you think of what it would've been like if you lived in our day what his press agent would have been saying about Paul and what his meetings would've been like after he came back from that experience. Here's the only man who has been to heaven and back and lived to tell about it. Come here him this Sunday night at such and such a place. But God took a different view that God knew that the great exultation and revelation had been given the Paul could also have been his downfall and so Paul said, lest I become proud and according to the message get the big head, God sent through a messenger that he allowed Satan to deliver.

He sent a problem into my life and he did it, that I might not be exalted above measure that was the purpose notice. Secondly the pain of this disruptive moment. Paul describes it in verse seven like this. He says it was a thorn in the flesh in the Greek language literally.

It's a stake a stake driven into the flesh. He describes it later on as something that buffeted him. I looked up the word buffet it means to beat somebody because informative reproach of the stress positive lest I be exalted above measure. God sent a thorn into my flesh. He drove a stake in the my body made no bones about it. Men and women sometimes disruptive moments of painful sometimes God allows pain in our life and suffering in our life as a disruptive moment. All people have had great fun with this passage, trying to figure out what Paul's thorn in the flesh is really all about. I've read everything I could find about it.

Let me tell you there are so many ideas. Some have suggested that Paul developed.

I trouble because of the passage in the book of Galatians.

Others have believed that Paul had some form of epilepsy. William Ramsey said maybe it was malaria many other ideas. I wrote some of them down, such as hysteria, hypochondria, gallstones, gout, rheumatism, sciatica, gastritis, leprosy, lies in the head, deafness, dental infection and remorse for the tortures would cause the church before he was saved.

All of those ideas.

Let me tell you something. Here is the studied opinion of your pastor on the issue of the thorn in the flesh ain't nobody knows it's not there and it's for a very good reason.

If the thorn in the flesh was.

I trouble when we went through a disruptive moment.

If it weren't I trouble. We would think this passage work for us. God by his silence as to the nature of the start of the flesh has made this passage applicable to every single one of us. When we face a bend in the road or we go through a time that is disruptive in our lives and so the pain is evident is not disguised with the specific nature of the pain is kept from us so that we would know that this applies to every one of us notice thoroughly in this passage, the provision in the disruptive moment and I'm just giving you this outline quickly. I don't mean this to be two sermons in one. I just want you to see the pattern, the provision in the disruptive moment is very clear.

Three times Paul said to God, take this away three times God said Paul I'm not going to do that.

But I'll tell you something.

I'll do something even better for you. I'll give you sufficient grace and perfect strength so that you be able to sail right through this and do what I want you to do so in the midst of the pain in the midst of the disruptive moment when the call was made. The Lord himself came down and walked with Paul through the bend in the road so that he would not lose his way. The provision in the disruptive moment notice forcefully the product of the disruptive moment. What is God producing in Paul through all of this. Paul said that the power of Christ may rest on me for when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul came to understand this disruptive moment in his life this bend in the road as an opportunity that God had taken to build something into him that he could not have had apart from the suffering what God told Paul simply was this you will not be without the grace to do your job, you will not be without the strength to be my ambassador, but the creative difference will be this.

Your weakness will serve to magnify the glory of God's power in such a way that nobody will ever again be able to explain you in human terms. It is as if Paul looks ahead and sees himself as a human tabernacle in which the Shekinah glory has come to dwell in and never again can he ever be the same because the disruptive moment this bump in the road. This been around which he could not see has been a messenger from God to help him see that in his weakness in the flesh.

He becomes a receptacle for the power of God in a way that he had never ever known before. I think if I understand the nature of Paul that he is like a lot of us men who think we can do it.

I mean were indestructible were invulnerable.

I have to tell you that one of the most awesome things about the experience that I've had has been getting in touch with my own mortality and beginning to realize that I'm not Superman and that I don't have control of my own destiny, but it lies in the hands of somebody else, and in the moment of weakness. We began to understand that God is just waiting walking into the empty place left when we walked out so that he can fill us with his power and the product of this suffering this pain in Paul's life was the product of more power now notice the perspective number five of this disruptive moment. Paul says finally. Most gladly therefore will I boast in my infirmities for I want the power of Christ to rest on me. It's almost as if Paul looking back on this realizes what he was like before this happened to them and what he is become like after this is happened to them and he says, in essence, and you can't get anything out of the passage other than this if I could go back to the way it was before, and not have to walk through this disruptive moment I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world because what God has made out of meat. On the other side of this bump in the road is so incredible to me. I glory in it.

I boasted it. I thank God for it. I need to tell you, you can only do that when you're looking back on it.

It's hard to do that when you're in the midst of it, but I take great hope and Paul's testimony because I believe it with all of my heart. He looks at the picture of Christ's power and he rejoices now that's all I want to say about second Corinthians 12 which you will be amazed as I was to discover how very closely the pattern follows in Hebrews 12 so turn their Hebrews chapter 12 and I want to begin by reading in Hebrews 12 at the fifth verse in these passages are so very fresh in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, getting with the fifth verse, or have you forgotten how good parents treat children and that God regards you as his children, my dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either.

It's the child he loves that he disciplines the child he embraces. He also corrects God is educating you and that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children.

The trouble herein isn't punishment.

It's training the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer and a responsible God, we respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live while we were children, our parents did.

What seemed best to them what God is doing what is best for us training us to live God's holy best at the time. Discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain.

Later, of course, it pays off handsomely. It's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. Now once again if Paul is the writer of Hebrews we can understand the parallelism but even if he is not. It is striking to notice that the outline for this passage is exactly the same as the outline for second Corinthians 12. First of all, there is the purpose of the disruptive moment. Paul says that God allows chastening. He allows training in our lives that we might be corrected to correct this is a father corrects his son and that he might prove to us that we are his children. Do you see that the Bible says all of the children in the father's family are discipline, and if you don't have any discipline in your life, you better check into your relationship. There is no way to be a part of the father's family and not once in a while in your life feel the pain of his scourging and is rebuking and his chastisement. Some people think that the goal in life was to go all the way through from the cradle to the grave without ever having any pain.

The person who does that is an unfortunate one and one who needs to check into whether or not he truly is a member of the family of God. Notice the pain in this disruptive moment again in Hebrews 12 Paul describes it like this. He calls it chastening and rebuking and scourging and correcting and I love this little phrase, not joyful but painful, very clear, isn't it. There is no desire on the part of the Almighty God of the spirit of God to disguise what he is doing is not trying to say if you just smile and think positive thoughts. This will go away and you won't feel it so sad is the teaching that we have about us today that if we love God and we walk with him. We will never be sick. We will never have suffering we will never have poverty we will never have any disease in our life we will never have any that that is not from the word of God the Word of God is brutally honest about the reality of life and that sometimes in the process of growing up in God's family. We feel the sting of the whip. It doesn't feel good and we would not really desire it, but God has a purpose and when you feel it one of the things you can do is stand up straight and say so. I am assigned. I am assigned. I am in the family. It's the proof of God's love for us. Notice the provision of the disruptive moment. Once again, in the passage, God reminds us that when we are under the scourging of the father he treats us as a father treats a son he says in our earthly days.

Our parents do this for their good, but when God does this, he does it for our good, because he loves us and in the midst of the disruptive moment when we face the bend in the road. God is right there with us taking us along the pathway.

There's another wonderful passage that had hope to share but there wasn't enough time in this lesson, that's John 15 and you can read that when you get a chance, that passage, the Lord uses a parable about the vineyard and remember what he said.

He said every branch that brings forth good fruit. The Lord purges it so that it might bring forth more fruit.

The branches that don't bring forth any fruit are not really in the binder castaway, but the branches that bring forth fruit. The Bible says God the father is the vine dresser and he comes down and walks among his vineyard and he goes along the vines and he slips off the unproductive branches so all of the staff and all of the strength can flow through to the vine that is being productive, and the result is when it's all finished.

It is more fruitful than it was before.

But let me tell you what I remember about that passage. Most of all, this little statement I don't know who it is attributed to but it is very clear to me that it is the truth. It goes like this. The vine dresser is never nearer the branches them when he is pruning them all. The provision of God in the disruptive moments of our lives and then finally look at the product of the product of the disruptive moment he says in Hebrews 12 is that we become partakers of his holiness and that afterword.

This process yields in us the peaceable fruit of righteousness. You see this in second Corinthians 12. The goal is more power in Hebrews 12. The goal is more holiness and righteousness. There isn't any way to get from point A to point B without going through the disruptive moment when you come out on the other side there's more power and there's more holiness. That's the product that God is after the tremendous selection of Scriptures second Corinthians 12 in Hebrews 12. It's interesting quite often in the Bible chapters in the Bible that you find it like first John three.

All of these passages seem to I don't know.

I know the chapters were done, long after the Bible was written, but even there, there seems to be the hand of God. So remembers second Corinthians 12 it's Hebrews 12 read those two chapters and you will find help for your bend in the road and let me remind you again that during this month and this month only for making available this brand-new book.

It's just off the press's 280 pages of studies in the Psalms you know the Bible is made up of such great material and there's something in the Bible for every time in life. The Psalms were written for times like this. And there's certain Psalms called the sheltering Psalms. Can you believe that that's in commentaries were written long before you ever experienced this the sheltering Psalms.

So I've put together in this book, sheltering God the exposition of some of the sheltering Psalms are telling the story what David went through and how it mirrors what were going through right now is very encouraging. Very uplifting, very helpful as you shelter in your place. Sheltering God at the same time, you may be coming toward the end of your sheltering in place now you need to make the transition to make sure that what you've learned during this time of isolation is going to build the strength in your foundation for life and send you out into the new world.

The new normal. If you will with a new set of priorities that will take you where God wants you to go once again you can get your copy of this book shelter in God. Your refuge in times of trouble is yours for the asking. With the gift of any size. Just make sure you ask for the book, shelter, and God will send it to you immediately.

This book will help you it will encourage you and will strengthen you during this time and will see right here tomorrow for the next edition of for more information on the series when your world. Visit our website really offered to freeways to help you stay connected monthly magazine Turning Point and have daily email devotionals. Sign up today@jeremiah.org/right here that's David Jeremiah don't hold/ready when you do ask for your copy of David's helpful you shelter in God sure to be an encouragement to you during this unprecedented gift of any amount. Jeremiah 35 in the English standard and new international version as well as in standard a large print the new king in a variety of, visit David Jeremiah thoughtful/radio I'm very tomorrow as we continue the series when your falls upon us here on thinning point. Jeremiah, thanks for taking time to listen to the frenzies increased in size and all