Rocky Revelations
Part 1 - The Pain Threshold
I. Introduction
I don’t have to set the background much for Rocky. Everyone knows the gist of the movie. A local, hard hitting, undisciplined brawler gets the shot of a life time due to his marketable nickname “The Italian Stallion”. He enters the ring as an out of shape fighter and almost wins an epic battle against the “Master of Disaster”, “The King of Sting”, Apollo Creed the champion of the world. This first success sets the stage for another shot which he wins and then over the course of several more movies this soft, lumpy fighter transforms right before our eyes into a statuesque professional fighter. The highlight of the films other than the fight scenes is the grueling process Rocky endures each time to hone his body into a weapon. His training scenes have spawned real life work out routines that folks continue to follow today. Rocky’s journey to the championship was paved by pain! He worked out beyond human limits and pushed past his pain threshold into greatness. Rocky’s story is a story of pain interrupted by moments of victory! One of the Rocky Revelations that I want to share with you is about pain.
Pain is real. Pain is common. Pain is a part of life. Pain must be endured. But here is the one that you might not understand or like and that is pain is necessary.
It is hard to see pain as a friend. Many times we fight it. We all know people who have become bitter about it. We may have personally tried to ignore it in hopes that it would go away. Or perhaps we try to laugh it off. Have you ever dealt with a kid who has hurt a finger or a toe who is in complete panic mode? One way to settle them down is when you joke about cutting it off. We all have a pain threshold. We all have a level of pain that we just can’t seem to bear. Some of us seem to have a lower pain threshold while others seem to have a high threshold for pain.
Some of you haven’t really felt the sting of much pain. A bad day here or there. A broken heart perhaps. A stress headache or two. But even though you have felt like it was the end of the world it wasn’t really earth stopping. Others here have endured tragedy after tragedy. Loved ones taken before their time. Devastation. Ruin. Heart stopping and heartbreaking. Enough pain to cause most to quit. However, as bad as you have seen, there is an account in the Bible of perhaps the worst day ever. This man’s theme song was sung weekly on a show that most of you nothing about called Hee Haw. The song said, “Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all Gloom despair and agony on me!” Job could have sung this song with conviction.
Job 1:1-19; 2:7-8
1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, "Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly." Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, "What have you been up to?"
Satan answered God, "Going here and there, checking things out on earth."
8 God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil."
9-10 Satan retorted, "So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 "But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what."
12 God replied, "We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him." Then Satan left the presence of God.
13-15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 18-19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened."
Then a little while later we read:
7-8 Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.
Job did more than just have a bad day. He had a bad day on steroids. In one day he loses all of his possessions. He goes from the rich house to the poor house. Financial security to instant bankruptcy. All of his children are taken. His heritage. His legacy all removed in one fatal swoop. Not one funeral, but 10 to plan and attend. Then to make matters worse his health is taken away. Makes the bad day at work on Friday seem trivial doesn’t it?
But the real issue that is raised by Job’s bad day isn’t how bad the pain was because each of us has a different pain threshold. The real question is why? Why is pain necessary? Let’s look at a few things about pain.
II. The Pain Truth
1. Pain is predictable and impartial.
Like it or not pain is predictable. We will all face pain at some point. Pain is simply a part of life. If you haven’t faced any pain mark my words you will. Even folks who seem to have a fairy tale life, who seem to wake up smiling, who seem to have a free pass still have pain. We just don’t know about it. They hide it or as we have seen recently they medicate it.
Pain is also impartial. No one is immune. No is off limits. Job was upright but still endured pain. Jesus was the Son of God, but still endured pain. You will never be “good enough” or “holy enough” to not have to face pain. If that was the case you wouldn’t need the promise of a savior who felt what we feel!
2. Pain purifies.
Pain purifies us. It rips away all the nonessentials from our life and gets us to focus once again on what really matters. So many of us are so wrapped up in things that don’t really matter. Pain forces us into clarity! Popularity no longer matters. Stuff no longer matters. Grudges no longer matter. Pain purifies us and strips us to the basics.
3. Pain pushes and strengthens us.
You will remember in Rocky 4 that Rocky faces off against Ivan Drago the fighter from Russia. In order to fight this mountain of a man, Rocky had to train and push through pain like he had never done before. Pain as much as it hurts can force us to expand and become stronger.
You will never move from A to B until you become sick of A or until it is more painful to stay at A than it is to move to B. Often pain is required to push us to change. One man said it like this, “If you want to see people dance, you’ve got to shoot bullets at their feet every now and then!”
Pain motivates us to move.
4. Pain positions and prepares us.
As great as Job was before pain, he was greater after pain. His greatness increased after pain. You can go read that in Job 42. We all know the end of the story. After pain, Scripture tells us, “The LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.” and “The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first.”
Your greatness is determined by how much pain you are willing to endure. In other words . . . pain is your threshold to greatness.
Greatness is always preceded by periods of pain. You can forfeit greatness by your unwillingness to endure pain.
One man said it like this, “If you want to be good it will be painful only every now and then, and many people can still handle it. But being great is a totally different level. The pain is much deeper and it is continuous. Very few people can endure this kind of pain and that’s why there are very few great people. Most people naturally choose things that bring pleasures to them. It’s unnatural to choose pain over pleasure, let alone doing it continuously for long time.“
5. Pain speaks.
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.” –C. S. Lewis
Job loved God that was obvious. In Job 1 we discover that every day he would offer sacrifices. He was in relationship with God. However, until he endured pain he never heard from God. He made assumptions about God. He assumed God’s favor. He assumed God’s faithfulness. His power. His love. However, it was only during and after pain that he actually heard God. Job 42:5, “5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”
Pain is the best Q-Tip and eye drops ever created. It cleans out our ears and allows us to hear from God. So many voices via for our attention but pain brings the sound of God into range! It opens our eyes to our creator. Through the tears we must allow the pain to help us to see clearly.
6. Pain shatters our illusion of self-sufficiency.
“If I allow pain to make me bitter, it blinds me to the truth of what God wants to do in my life.” –Martin Luther
“[Pain] removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.” – CS Lewis
Psalm 119:71 “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.”
Pain teaches us and reminds us that we still need God! If there was never any pain we would think that we can do life without God. We would think that we have it all under control.
Paul understood this and so in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 he said:
7-10Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a 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! At 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’s 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, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
Pain can be a gift! Pain is a constant reminder that we need God and we need a savior who has been touched by the same infirmities that we have faced. We can’t make it on our own. Call God and Jesus a crutch! I am OK with that. But I can tell you that I would rather have a crutch that carries me than a crutch like alcohol or drugs that only make things worse! I need him!
Here is the truth, as strong as you may be, you need Him!
III. Close
So you have a choice this morning. You can fight pain. It will still come. You can ignore pain. You will miss the truth it brings. You can be afraid of pain. You will miss the gift that it can be. Or you can embrace pain. Allow it to grow you, push you, expand you, and catapult you to greatness. You can embrace pain and it will help you hear God and see God. You can allow pain to draw you closer to Him than you have ever been! Pain can be the thing that reminds you of just how much you need Him!
In old age, Pierre Auguste Renoir, the great French painter, suffered from arthritis, which twisted and cramped his hand. Henri Matise, his artist friend, watched sadly while Renoir, grasping a brush with only his fingertips, continued to paint, even though each movement caused stabbing pain. One day, Matise asked Renoir why he persisted in painting at the expense of such torture. Renoir replied, "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."
Your pain will pass away; you have to learn to see the beauty in it.
Prayer – some in pain who need prayer – not sure you can handle it, angry about it
