A Bend In The Road - Part 1 - 6

Thanks everyone willingly. Both would almost give a donation to vision is what you return rates of loosing impact. 1125 Is Way generous with those who refresh of those supposedly refreshed. So if you fall regarding being generous and refreshing with a true cool drink all summer day with your text at all.how you use the free Christian media we gave the dish and like most people you don't like surprises, especially the painful ones by Dr. David Jeremiah looks at how God uses those unwanted surprises to grow us. Listen, I was David introduced today's message abandon the run and thank you for joining us for the weekend edition of Turning Point throughout life. We have those moments sometimes referred to is disruptive moments, but lately we've been having disruptive months, not moments, and what we do without what happens to us when the unexpected happens to us to talk about it today on the weekend edition of Turning Point as we discussed in my return 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 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 is 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 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 and 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 is 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 to 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 infirmity reproaching 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 eye 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, lice 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 eye trouble when we went through a disruptive moment. If it weren't eye 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 is disruptive in our lives and so the pain is evident is not disguised, but the specific nature of the pain is kept from us so that we would know that this applies to every one of us noticed 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 and 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 but 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 was 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's 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 has 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 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. 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 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 and 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 than 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 it.

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. Do 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 and then finally, just as in second Corinthians 12 notice here in Hebrews 12 the perspective of the disruptive moment. How are we to respond to this Hebrews is very clear about it in the quotation from Proverbs 311 and 12 which is in the fifth verse, the writer of Hebrews says my son don't despise the chastening of the Lord. One of the options you have us to despise it. Rises happen to me why now why this I'm so angry that God have you ever met somebody was mad at God because of something that's happened in their life. They despise the chastening is not the right perspective. Keep reading it says don't be discouraged when you rebuke some people just get discouraged.

They just with their head down and they say well that's it I'm given up. This is all over its final when I'm trying to say is this. When you go through disruptive moment. If you're not careful you can just say I'll shoot this is it and I'm done and it's finished. I'm just gonna hang my head and give up in the Bible says when you have a disruptive moment. Don't be discouraged.

What you supposed to do. Look at the end of the 11th verse it says that when you go through disruptive moment, it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now here's the key to the whole thing to those who have been trained by it. That's the key.

The key isn't rises happen to me or what am I going to do.

The key is Lord, what do you want to teach me in this disruptive moment and I stand as you are ready student and pupil and you just teach me everything you can teach me I don't want to waste this suffering I want to walk through it and come out on the other side. Having learned everything I can learn in this process.

I want to tell you something. I read the Bible in a different way. I read books in a different way. I pray in a different way. All of this is a part of the way God trains us when we go through a bend in the road.

Now do you see second Corinthians 12 in Hebrews 12 almost exactly like the outline is exactly the same. And out of these two passages come some very poignant principles for disruptive moments and let me give them to you. This is what I want you to hear so very clearly you say well I haven't had any disruptive moments of my life.

Well this hang on this. Hang on, be patient because they'll come.

It's impossible, you say what a morbid outlook on life know you know what people always talking about whether you're an optimist or your pessimist and I don't think either one of those make any difference what you need to be is a realist right reality is what counts. Some people say well if you're optimistic you will never have any bumps in the road. Yes, you will you surely will. So what you do when you have a disruptive moment. First of all let me just put this in your heart. Principle number one disruptive moments are often divine appointments. Remember how Job was buffeted by Satan, but Satan had to get permission to come and do anything.

He was allowed to do. Can Satan do damage to a saint.

Yes he can but he can only do the damage that God will allow. So ultimately everything that happens to us is filtered through the hands of a loving God. Hebrews 12 is even clearer. Hebrews 12 tells us that the suffering is like unto our father was chastising his son, who is the father in the passage it's God himself and it says to us that these moments that are disruptive in our lives these things that catch us off guard. They come from God.

I can't tell you anything that is more important for us to understand than that principle because if we don't have that clear. We will feel like we have been violated.

Now let me give you the second principle this when I don't like but in faithfulness to God. I must give it to you. Is progress without pain is not possible. Can I get a witness. Nobody wants to say amen. Nobody feels good about it. But let's be honest, it's true in I been meditating a lot about why that is true even in my own life because I think we have to understand that we are so caught up in our own agenda in our own plans and own purposes, and the things we want to do and the things many of them which are good that until there is a dynamic intervention in our life that is strong enough and painful enough to get our attention. We really don't stop to take notice of what God wants to say to us. I get to it tomorrow. This is a busy day for me. I'll take more time to work on that when I get a chance.

These are busy times. I was mentioning to you, Gord McDonald's broken, to take just a minute to tell you this in the front of his book he tells a parable about a guy was going to ship and this guy was really into the ordinate out readings of shipbuilding and so we built the most gorgeous sales, but you could ever imagine. He put teak wood flooring on the deck of the ship. He put all the most incredible equipment for navigation in the system. All those beautiful furniture in the greatest paint job.

Your resolve it when it came time to put the weight in the keel that would stabilize the ship in the storm. It really wasn't that important to him because nobody is going to see it anyway.

So we kind of fudged on it didn't put much down there course. He went out first day was in the ocean storm came by and the ship capsized this man who went out into the harbor with great applause came back in Shane because in Gord McDonald's words he had forgotten to build below the waterline and Gordon said in his book that one of the great tragedies in life today. For many Christians is that were all caught up in the sales in the wood and the equipment and the accouterments of life and the soul which lies below the waterline is so hard for us to get at and what happens when something doubles like what is happening here is you almost get to the place where all you can do is respond to what's going on everybody wants this.

They want to. We gotta start this we go to do this. Can we have this. Can we make this happen. What a good about parking would be going to and all of a sudden your life is so crowded above the waterline that in a time when you should be building even more intensely below the waterline than you already were. You feel it being crowded until you have a moment of disruption and all of a sudden everything above the waterline doesn't mean anything with me and I'm not trying to say to you, and this is not public confession time. I'm not trying to say to you that I don't pray because I do. I don't study God's word because I do, but I'm saying to you. It's hard to maintain the ratio of investment above the waterline with investment below the waterline when the pressure is on and sometimes I think God's exact things in perspective. Progress without pain is not possible someone has written these words related to skin deep world that emphasizes clothing, fashion, makeup, plastic surgery, tummy tucks and nose jobs. Although there may be nothing wrong with any of these neurologist cosmetics character and substance are shaped in the crucible of diversity when someone tells me they have no problems and never go through anything difficult.

I can say with confidence that I'm looking at a shallow person. Storms always leave us with a list of things to clean up and fix. There are times when God restores to us the things we've lost through negligence, ignorance, rebellion, or sin for the Christian storms are a no lose proposition.

They help me to see and acknowledge the Lou shutters the missing shingles.

The rotten fencepost in my life while turning me back to the only one who can make the necessary repairs." While there have a wake-up call. And don't we all need them. Though we all need those times that jerk us back into a feeling of what's really important. More than anything else, let me just give you the third one, the promise of God is the provision of his grace God never puts us through anything. He doesn't walk around the been with us. He doesn't just say will try this way and then try that way. He says just stay right where you are. I'll be there in a moment, and will walk through this together.

My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness.

God's grace in the midst of our disturbing moments is an incredible thing to experience, and most of you know more about that than I do. When we give you number four disruptive moments produce dynamic growth.

But that down in your list. What is it safe to send curtains. 12 more power. Hebrews 12 more holiness. John 15 more fruit. Someone once told me that the times when plants grow the most are not necessarily during the warm gentle rains or the beautiful summer days in fact, when the fierce winds blow and the raging storms, is the time of most growth botanists tell us that if you were to take a cross-section of the earth during a vicious storm.

You could literally observe the roots reaching further down into the soil. That's what it's all about when the storm comes often, God causes that to happen. Finally, in a bring this to a conclusion number five what we receive depends on how we respond you everybody goes through trials. The only difference is how we respond to them. What did we learn in Hebrews.

What are some of the options we can despise them and get mad we can be discouraged to just give up or we can say God in the midst of this experience of my life.

I want to be the best student you ever had. I want to learn everything you can teach me I want to come out of this arm with information and truth about who I am in Christ and what you want to do with my life that I could never learn in any other school training that has to be our response, not why did this happen or why did it happen now or why did you happen to me but Lord, you've allowed this in my life and I'm going to learn from it by the grace of God I will not be the same person God brought into my life wonderful God-fearing Christ follower Dr. Thomas Whitsett member of the first Baptist Church of Rochester, just fell into my life in a moment when I thought it was enough to sit for three days and not be able to go on to the next appointment. The Saturday I left Thomas Whitsett came to see me in the last thing said to me, as is David.

I've never had cancer and I don't really want to have it obviously, but he said I've dealt with so many people and what I do have my disease.

I almost feel as if I've had it said I want to try something you will never be the same again. I said what you mean. He said this, he said I know where you live. He said you will never, ever, just drive by the ocean again. You will never do that and I thought about that for a long time.

I understand what he meant.

He met you can't come through an experience like this and ever be the same as you were what you are.

The key is key is how you respond in your heart, what your attitude about it is, my father gave this to me and I thought to be a blessing. It's a poem by Helen Steiner Rice title of the poem is the bend in the road goes like this.

Sometimes we come to life's crossroads and review what we think is the end.

But God is a much wider vision and he knows that it's only a bend in the road will go on and get smoother and after we stop for a rest. The path that lies hidden beyond. This is often the path is best. So rest and relax grow stronger. Let go and let God share your load. Have faith in a brighter tomorrow. Just come to a bend in the road. We hope you enjoyed today's tuning board weekend edition with Dr. David Jeremiah to hear this. Another Turning Point programs will get more information about this ministry. Simply download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smart device or visit their website@davidjeremiah.org/radio that David Jeremiah.org/radio.

You can also view Turning Point television on free to air channel 72 on Sunday mornings and night and on I CCTV Sundays at 6:30 AM and Friday afternoons at one. We invite you to join us again next weekend is Dr. David Jeremiah. She is another powerful message from God's word here on Turning Point, weekend edition thanks for taking time to listen to the Ellington artist friend. He's increasingly stay savings and so I