Step #12 says this: "Having had a spiritual awakening..I am now compelled to carry this message to those who are still suffering...as I continue to yield all of myself to God."
Step #12 assumes something - it assumes a spiritual awakening has taken place in your life. Step #12 exists because Steps 1 to 11 have been thoroughly gone through..and we have been changed. I love how this old 12 step book describes those words spiritual awakening..(Read p. 106-107)
Step #12 assumes this transformation has taken place - that steps 1 to 3 are taken care of and that our relationship with God is active and growing constantly..that we are continuing to do what we must do every day - to put God in the driver's seat of our lives..and we are seeing signs of healing in our lives...
Then it says take action: "Having had a spiritual awakening - we are compelled to carry this message to those who are still suffering."
Why are we compelled? Because our lives have been changed by God..
Here's the verse of the day - from God's Word.."God comforts us in all our troubles...so that we can comfort others...
When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.." 2 Cor. 1:4.
Many of the problems in your life are for the help of other people. Many of the heartaches, many of the pains, many of the difficulties that you personally go through are there for the benefit of other people. God wants to take you through that problem and then give a ministry, an ability, to help other people through the very things that you've been going through. The way God comforts you..well that's the way He wants you to turn around and help other people.
This is the proof of recovery: You know you've recovered, you know you're emotionally, physically, spiritually healthy when you start focusing on other people. You want to help others. In fact, if all you can think about is your problem, if all you can think about is your stress, your difficulty, you're not thinking about helping other people you're only thinking about helping yourself, and how can I get rid of this pain and how can I get rid of my problems and my stress....you're not there yet. You're still on the road to recovery. The way that you know that you're an emotionally healthy person is you start thinking about other people and how can I help them.
Let me give you some facts about pain. It's so connected to Step #12.
1. There is no such thing about a pain free life. As long as you are on this planet you will have emotional pain, physical pain, relational pain in many different areas. This is not heaven. Heaven is pain free. This is earth. So you will always have pain the rest of your life.
2. There is a purpose behind your pain. God always uses pain for a purpose. God has a reason for it. God wants to do a number of things in your life through it and God never wastes a hurt. He wants to use it in your life.
3. Your greatest contribution in this world - your greatest ministry, your greatest service - will be not through your strengths but through your pain, sharing your weakness, your pain. Why? Because people don't get helped by your strengths. When I see a really multi-talented person out there I go, "Well, that's good of them. But that doesn't help me." When I see a multi talented person that doesn't make me feel good about myself. They're good at that. Congratulations. Good for you! But when I meet somebody who says, "I went through this pain and God helped me and God saw me through it,"
and it's the pain I'm going through right now that is encouraging. When I hear that I think, "Maybe I can make it. Maybe I can get through this too. Maybe God will help me. Then I'll end up helping other people just like this person has helped me." Who can better help someone who's going through the pain of a divorce than somebody who's already went through the pain of a divorce? Who can better help somebody who's lost all their finances and going bankrupt than somebody who's lost all their finances and has gone bankrupt? Who can better help the parents of a problem or special needs child than some parents who had a special needs child? Who can better help somebody who's going through a cancer situation than somebody who went through a cancer situation? Who can better help someone who's been abused and raped, than someone who was abused or raped?
The very thing that you like least to talk about in your life, the very thing you're most embarrassed about, the very thing you want to hide in the closet, the very thing that you don't even want to think about is the very thing that God wants to use in your life to help and encourage other people. And that is Step 12 in this road to getting healthy again. God never wastes a hurt.
Three key thoughts today that will press us forward....will compel us to carry the message of our pain to those who still need recovery...
I. God always brings good out of bad
People, if you really want to help someone else, then you need to hear the truth about what God does with our pain...He wants desperately to use it to help someone else...
If you look you'll see how God is bringing good out of the bad that has happened in your life. This is one of the great promises from God's word. God specializes in bringing good out of bad. One of the classic promises on that is Romans 8:28 "We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God." This is a phenomenal verse so let's look at it word by word.
First notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, "God causes everything to work out the way I want it to." Because that's not reality. Everything does not work out the way you want it to in life. And God does not promise that. This is not heaven. This is earth.
It doesn't say, "God causes everything to work out to have a happy ending on earth." That is not true either. There are a lot of unhappy endings on earth. This is a fallen broken world.
What does it say?
First, "We know." We don't hope. We don't wish. We don't imagine. We don't desire. We don't psych ourselves up mentally and pull ourselves up by bootstraps. "We know." We are confident. We are assured. We are certain of what we are to learn about God....We know it for a fact. What do we know?
"We know that God causes." There's a grand design behind it all. And there is a grand Designer behind it all. Your life is not a result of random chance. Your life is not a result of fate. Your life is not a result of either good luck or bad luck. There is no such thing. There is a grand design. And life does not happen by chance and it is not by accident and it is not by good or bad luck. God has a design and He is the designer.
"We know that God causes." What does that mean? It means that we make mistakes but God doesn't. We do make mistakes, sure. But God never makes mistakes.
"We know that God causes all things." What's included in the word "all"? Everything! Does that include your mistakes? Yes. Does that include your sins? Yes. Your stupid decisions? Yes. Does that include things that are painful like cancer and miscarriages? Yes. Hurts from other people in our lives? Yes. Divorce? Death of a friend? Parents? Yes. Everything fits into God's plan. Even the bad things God uses them for good.
"We know that God causes all things to work together for good." "Together". Not separately. It does not say that everything in life is good. That's obviously not true. Rape is not good. War is not good. Leukemia is not good. Children getting strung out on drugs and running away from home. That's not good. There's a lot of bad in this world.
It says "All things work together for good." For everybody? No. This is not a promise for everybody in the whole world. "For those who love God."
This is a promise only for people who have taken their lives and put them in the hand of God and said,
"God, You take all the pieces, good, bad and ugly and You work it out for good." God works for good in the lives of those people.
I'll be honest with you if you have not done that. if you have not placed your life in the hands of God and trusted Christ for your life, all things are not working together for good in your life. In fact, all things are working together for bad in your life because you are living in opposition to God. God created you, He loves you, He formed you, He has a plan for your life. One day when you accept God's grace, love and forgiveness and open your heart to Him and say, "Yes, I want to be what You made me to be." Then from that moment on all things start working together for good in your life. God has a plan and He brings good out of it.
It says they all work together, not separately. There are a lot of bad things in my life, there are a lot of bad things in your life individually are very distasteful. I recently heard the illustration of what's it like to eat the individual components of a doughnut before it's baked. Not too tasty. You take flour and you eat it by itself it's pretty dry and dull. Raw eggs, yuck! Crisco, double yuck! Even raw sugar by itself is not very tasty.
But you put all that stuff together and you bake it and you can make a crispy cream doughnut. And that is good!
There are a lot of things in your life that are distasteful. There are a lot of things in your life that are flat out bitter. They don't taste good. But God works them all together for good, if you give Him the pieces of your life - the good, the bad, the ugly. If you put your life in His hands and you love God.
Can God bring good even out of evil? Absolutely! Was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ evil? Yes. Did God bring good out of it? I'd say so! Just the potential salvation of all of mankind. God specializes in bringing good out of bad.
In Hebrew (Jewish) culture the lineage or the genealogy; the family tree of the family is always traced through the male in Jewish culture. That's why in the Bible it lists only the guys and you don't see women's names in the genealogy of the families of the Bible. But you do in one place. And that is in the genealogy, the family tree, the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
In that genealogy in Matthew 1, God lists four women who were used in the family tree to help bring the Messiah, into the world. That in itself is amazing that four women are listed. But when you understand who the four women are it's even more amazing. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Let me tell you about these four women who were in the family tree of Jesus.
Tamar had two husbands who were absolute jerks and then was seduced by her father in law. That's like a soap opera.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Ruth was not even Jewish. She was a Moabite and she illegally married a Jewish man so the marriage would be null and void in Jewish culture because she wasn't even Jewish. She broke the law.
And Bathsheba committed adultery with David the king and her husband was murdered.
Not exactly sterling reputations for these women. But they are the ones that God chose to bring Jesus into the world through that family tree.
Can God bring good out of bad? Absolutely. You may have had some problems in your life that you're ashamed of. And God bring good out of them?...Absolutely.
Think of the biggest mistake you've ever made. If you're perfect think of the biggest disappointment you've ever had. Follow the logic on this. You know the big mistake you made that you regret, wish had never happened? God knew you were going to make it long before you were even born. God knew you were going to make it before it happened. So He developed a plan to bring good out of that bad if you'll give it to Him. What a God we serve! God is bigger than your problems. God is bigger than your pain. God is bigger than your sin. God is bigger than your arrogance and selfishness. God is bigger than it all and He can use it all for good if you'll give it to Him.
This is how you can be both optimistic and realistic about your life. Realistic about the pain and problems you've gone through, many you've brought on your own self. And optimistic because you know God's going to bring good out of it. Let's go back to the verse we read before..2 Cor. 1:4 says.."God comforts us in all our troubles...so that we can comfort others...When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.." God brings good out of bad.
Here's a great example of this. (Kerby video)
Here's the one thing I know for sure in life - because it's happened to me...I've seen it in literally hundreds of other people...No matter how bad your circumstances may be now or ever....God can turn those around for good...and He will use your life for an eternal purpose - amazing.
Here's the second truth I want you to hear today....
2. God always equips us with what we need.
Folks, we need to understand this point very clearly..if it's true that God wants us to help other people - to turn even the bad in our lives to good - by helping others..then we need to know that He will supply everything we need in order to do that well..He will give us the abilities we need to help transform others by His love...
Here's what the Bible says...
1 Cor. 12:1,4,&7 - The Apostle Paul writes this.."I will write about the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives to each of us..There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all..A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church." He goes on to use this analogy in verse 12.."The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body.
So it is with the church."..Each of you have been given abilities to encourage and help the other parts of this Body - the church..to function properly and move effectively together.
So what have we learned?
That our pain has a purpose.
- God always brings good out of bad - always.
- God always equips us with what we need - always.
And there's one more truth.
- God always uses our lives powerfully when we give our lives to Him.
This is the part of this whole following Jesus thing that never ceases to amaze me..Let me try to put it into words..
The way God has chose to work in this world is through me and you - people who walk with Him...Now let that sink in...The process by which God in His divine plan has chosen to pass on His love and grace and peace and life-transforming power to people - is through people. God has chosen us - God has chosen you - God has chosen me..to work through us to transform other people's lives...It's like He's said...You've got a little bit of the map figured out..Now go back and share that information with someone who's still lost and needs to be found by God..
Think about that..We get to be God's messengers when we walk in a relationship with Jesus..We then get to shine the light and love of Christ on someone else's path..That's the whole design..
Again, the Apostle Paul puts it like this..2 Cor. 5:17,18,&20a: "What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to Himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him.We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you."
We are Christ's ambassadors. We speak - we live - we act - we have - we give - we pray - on behalf of Jesus - to the people He brings across our path in life - amazing.
People hear this..When God begins to work in your life first - to clean up what He needs to - to make you healthy and whole - when He gets our souls well..and He sets our life on a track to help other people - when He gives us a picture of the calling and destiny He has for us...and we actually begin to see past our own stuff - to see someone else and what God might want to do in their lives...and when we actually give of ourselves and give of what God has given us - to see someone else's life change - now that's an investment and it has huge payback..
Following God and giving His love to others allows us in turn to feel more of God's love. It is incredible the blessings that come with following and giving Jesus..Let me allow my friend Glen to describe this further from his experience...
He's a man who has found out the secret of following and giving back and showering God's love to other people and finding the blessing that comes from walking in God's light. |
