Paul basically said such a thing also in a different way in Romans 8:28 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
“ALL THINGS” includes the good and the bad.
But it is difficult sometimes to understand IT IS GOOD THAT WE ARE AFFLICTED WITH THESE THINGS!!!
But while we cannot see the GOOD does not mean that God CANNOT!!!
For example when the Apostle Paul was given a THORN IN THE FLESH he must have felt this way.
He prayed three times for God to deliver him and each time God said, NO, PAUL I HAVE A PURPOSE IN YOU GOING THROUGH THIS.
Why did God give Paul a THORN IN THE FLESH?
For two reasons…
(1)Because of the special revelations God gave Him.
Look at 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Why did God give him a THORN IN THE FLESH…?
Notice Verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations God had given him when he was caught up to the third heaven.
With this ABUNDANCE OF REVELATIONS he had received he was in danger of spiritual pride.
Paul was naturally a proud man before he was saved.
Illus: He was a member of the Sanhedrin Court in which the high priest and 71 members made major decisions for the Jewish race.
Illus: To be a member of the Sanhedrin court would be the same as to being a member of our Supreme Court.
But there is another reason God gave Paul a THORN IN THE FLESH…
(2)His conversion
In Acts 26 was a pivotal point in Church history when Paul was converted from a persecutor to one of the most influential Bible character in the New Testament
None of the other apostle had a conversion such as his.
Look at Acts 9:3-6 and as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutes: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
With these two extraordinary blessings there was the temptation for him to become PROUD.
To keep him humble God gave him a thorn in the flesh.
WHAT IS PRIDE?
• Pride is taking credit for something God has done.
• Pride is taking glory for something God has done.
This is why God cannot use someone that is PROUD!!!
So when he became a Christian, therefore, one of his besetting sins could become pride.
But God had plans to use Paul to write 14 books of the New Testament with this knowledge God had given him.
Too much who has been given much is required!!!
Paul could not have been used by God if he was proud and wanted to take credit for this knowledge he was given.
None of the other apostle could boast of these super natural experiences.
So gave him a THORN IN THE FLESH to keep him humble.
Illus: We all know how painful a thorn can be in the flesh. Once we receive it we want it out as soon as possible.
Paul prayed THREE TIMES FOR GOD TO REMOVE IT, BUT GOD TOLD HIM NO AND IT WAS TO TEACH HIM HUMILITY.
There has been a lot of speculation as to what that THORN IN THE FLESH was.
Many suggest Paul’s thorn had:
An eye disorder.
• In Galatians 4:15, Paul references the Galatians’ willingness to gouge out their eyes and give them to him if possible, implying he suffered from serious eye issues.
• Also, in Galatians 6:11, he notes using “large letters,” which some read as further support of an eye affliction.
No one knows what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but we can safely assume it was something that others could see that kept him humble.
But after praying three times for it to be removed and God told him NO he regarded this THORN IN THE FLESH was a BLESSING.
This is the same thing that God tell us Christians with our THORNS IN THE FLESH to do.
James 1:2-3 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations…”
We do not generally think of the testing of our faith as a favor… do we?
Illus: Remember when the teacher in school said, Tomorrow I am going to give you a test.
• We did not jump up and shout…Yea!!!
• The smarts ones did, because they were proud to show how smart they were, but not me, because I was not one of the smart ones.
God gave Paul a test, A THORN IN THE FLESH!!!
As I already stated, the thorn in the flesh probably was something that could be seen by others, and that thus tended to humble him BEFORE OTHERS.
The same can be applied to our lives.
• Sometimes by reducing us from a state of wealth, where we were in danger of being exalted above measure.
• Sometimes by suffering us to be smeared by someone who has smeared our character,
• Sometimes by want of success in our enterprises,
• And, if in the ministry, by withholding his Spirit; sometimes by suffering us to fall into sin, and thus greatly humbling us before the world.
Illus: Such was the case with David and with Peter; and God often permits us to see in this manner our own weakness, and to bring us to a sense of humility.
• How could David be lifted up with pride after the murder of Uriah?
• How could Peter after having denied his Lord three times be proud?
Sometime God allows us to fall on our face to keep us humble.
Illus: We have an expression that fits this situation, we say of some people, THEY HAVE GOTTEN TOO BIG FOR THEIR BRITCHES!!!
But God knows exactly what it will take to bring us down a few notches!!!
We should be thankful for any calamity that will humble us.
Concerning Paul’s Thorn in the flesh, he said, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
The Psalmist said, “It is good for me to be afflicted.”
Before the Psalmist in 119 said it was good that he was afflicted in verse 71, but as we back up to verse 67 we read, before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
One of the most dangerous times in our Christian life is when things are going good in our life.
We do not…
• Attend church as much as we should
• Pray as much as much as we should
• Read our Bible as much as we should
• Witness as much as we should
• We do not live as close to God as we should
We become so busy with the good times in our life that we allow the devil to squeeze God out of our life.
Psalmist said, IT WAS GOOD FOR ME WHEN GOD AFFLICTED ME!!!
Anything that will lead a man to obey God is a blessing and a favor.
Illus: It is only when…
• Some has to be afflicted with something that will put them on their backside in a hospital bed that they realize the god’s of this world has replaced the living god in their life.
• Some has to be afflicted with bankruptcy before they realize they have allowed the almighty dollar to replace the ALMIGHTY GOD IN THEIR LIFE.
Whatever leads a sinner to secure the salvation of his soul is a gain to him.
That is why the word of God teaches us in Matthew 5:29-30 and if thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offends thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
The Lord is not teaching that we are to literally to pluck our eyes out, but He is teaching it would be better if you were afflicted and lost both of your eyes than to go to hell with both of your eyes.
Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
A common greeting today when someone asks us HOW ARE WE FEELING is that we say, “I feel GREAT!!!”
But many times that is not true, we are not feeling GREAT but we just do not want anyone to know HOW WE REALLY FEEL!!!
Illus: However, you have to be careful when you ask some people how they are feeling, because for the next two hours they will tell you how they are feeling.
They do not REALLY have anything to complain about, but they can find a lot to complain about.
Illus: They remind me of a customer that was bothering the waiter in a restaurant.
• First, he asked that the air conditioning be turned down because he was too hot.
• Then he asked the waiter turn it up down because he was getting too cold.
He kept doing this for about a half an hour.
Surprisingly, the waiter was very patient; he walked back and forth and never once got angry.
Finally, a second customer asked him why he didn't throw out the pest.
"Oh, I really don't mind," said the waiter with a smile. "You see, when he complains I just walk by and hit the light switch to satisfy him, because we don't even have an air conditioner."
But we are concern about some folks and we would like to know how some people feel.
This reminds me of…
Illus: Farmer Brown decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court, the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning Farmer Brown. "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'YOU FELT GREAT" asked the lawyer?
• Farmer Brown responded, "Well I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..."
• "I didn't ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, that YOU FELT GREAT?"
• Farmer Brown said, "Well I had just gotten Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."
• The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
• By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Brown's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
• Brown thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side."
• He continued, "I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn't want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans."
• "Shortly after the accident, a highway patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me the patrolman looked at me and said, 'Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are YOU feeling?"
• Farmer Brown said, “I feel Great!!!”
None of us live in a perfect world! Everybody has problems…EVERYBODY!
Job said, in Job 5:7, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”
Some might be thinking…WHYCOULDN’T GOD CREATE SUCH A LIFE FOR US THAT WOULD SPARE US OF TROUBLE?
WHY?
Because…It is good for God to afflict us because…
I.TROUBLE MAKES US STRONG.
Illus: In weightlifting we are told, NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!!
Illus: This is true; no weightlifter has ever gotten strong without PAIN!
They know they cannot get strong without pain.
Illus: Here in the South, we have these tall Pine trees.
Did you know that Pine trees can grow to various heights depending on the species?
Generally, they can reach heights 50 feet with some species growing as much as 100 feet or more.
DO YOU KNOW HOW THESE TALL PINES REACH SUCH HEIGHT?
It is due to the wind that cause these tall pines to rock back and forth and you would think they would break in half.
But the strong winds rock these pine trees back and forth and loosen the soil around the root system.
As the storms rock these pines back and forth and it loosen the soil the root systems starts to grab new soil so that it can withstand the storm.
It is like you are hanging onto something for dear life and you grab tighter and tighter.
These storms cause us to grab onto the Lord like never before.
Illus: An old Chinese Proverb says, “A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials.”
David said, IT IS GOOD THAT I HAVE BEEN Afflicted because the affliction causes us to become strong in the Lord.
Trouble makes us exercise our faith. NO PAIN, NO GAIN!
David said it is good that I have been afflicted…
Why?
II. TROUBLE MAKES US SYMPATHETIC
One of the mistakes citizens make in this country is that we keep sending RICH PEOPLE to Washington that does not know a thing about the SUFFERINGS OF THE AVERAGE MAN!
The only thing the rich man thinks about is making money.
Illus: A rich man drove his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and went in to ask for an immediate loan of $5,000.
The loan officer, taken aback, requested collateral. "Well, then, here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce," the man said.
The loan officer promptly had the car driven into the bank's underground parking garage for safe keeping, and gave him $5,000. Two weeks later, the man walked through the bank's doors, asked to settle up his loan and get his car back.
"That will be $5,000 in principle, and $15.40 in interest," the loan officer said. The man wrote out a check and started to walk away.
"Wait sir," the loan officer said, "While you were gone, I found out you are a multimillionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000?"
The man smiled. "Where else could I park my Rolls-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks in a safe place and pay only $15.40?”
Listen, the only thing the rich man THINKS AND CARES ABOUT IS HOW TO MAKE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES.
We keep electing rich men and women, and every decision they make is based on what they will personally gain from it.
We keep sending men and women into Washington hoping they can FEEL OUR PAIN.
Listen it takes:
• Suffering to understand suffering
• Heartache to understand heartaches
• Loneliness to understand loneliness
• Poverty to understand poverty
• Sickness to understand sickness
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells how for years as a pastor he preached many funerals.
He said before the funerals he preached, he would ask the Lord to help him to feel the loss of these families.
He still had his parents, brothers and sister and cousins.
• But when he lost his parents, he then knew exactly how those felt who lose their parents felt.
• But he lost his siblings, and he knew exactly how those felt who lost their siblings felt.
We tell people we KNOW HOW THEY FEEL, but we can only do that when we have the same kind of loss!!!
We have to suffer before we know how someone feels that lost a loved one.
Have you ever heard?
THAT WE HAVE TO EXPERIENCE SOMETHING BEFORE WE CAN SYMPATHIZE WITH SOMEONE!
One of the reasons men turn so readily to Jesus Christ is because they know that He knows about human suffering.
He suffered and can therefore understand their sufferings.
As the author of Hebrews put it, in Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not a hight priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Illus: Arthur Pearson had weak eyes from the time of his birth. By the time he reached manhood, at the age of twenty-four, his race with blindness became serious, and twenty years later it reached its last sad stages.
When he was forty-seven, Pearson heard the best oculist in Europe tell him that within a year, the last flicker of light would fade from his ever-darkening world. The doctor's prophecy proved true. In the closing days of 1913, complete and permanent blindness settled on Arthur Pearson.
The following summer, the World War broke out, and within a few weeks blinded soldiers began to appear in the military hospitals near London. One day Pearson was called by telephone to come at top speed to one of these hospitals. The doctors there had told a young soldier that his sight was permanently destroyed and on hearing the news the soldier had gone into hysterics. They were unable to quiet him, so they summoned Pearson in the hope that he, another man who had lost his sight, might be able to say something that could bring some comfort to this man.
That visit to the hospital disclosed to Pearson a new and glorious life's work. He would organize a special hospital for blind soldiers! During the succeeding months and years, he carried out his plan, and when the war finally ended, he had no less than 1,700 blind veterans under his care in a great institution at St. Dunstan's. Whenever any patient lost his courage and self-control, and began to talk wildly of suicide, Pearson would visit the man, take his hand, and then say quietly, “You know, I'm blind too."
In trying to comfort people in trouble, we often say to them, as they pour their hearts out to us, “I understand!”
But listen, unless we have SUFFERED, we find it difficult to BE SYMPATHETIC to their needs.
Illus: When former President George Herbert Bush was President, he was campaigning to keep his job in the next election.
His opposition, President Bill Clinton, was campaigning against him stating, “I feel your pain” because of the sluggish economy. He was trying to convey to the American people that he SYMPATHIZED WITH them!
This became very effective, when former President George Herbert Bush went into a grocery store and he saw a cashier scanning some merchandise and asked, “What is that?” It made national news because here is a man in the White House living so far from the normal person, that he does not even go into a store enough to recognize a modern-day scanning machine.
Former President Bill Clinton convinced the American people he could sympathize with them.
Illus: This rich crowd in Washington makes laws so that they pay very little taxes with all the loopholes they pass for themselves.
But the average American people work from January to the middle of June to pay the taxes that have been placed on them. No, when taxes are due, they cannot feel our pain!!!
Illus: For example, during the gas crisis in 2005, many were paying high prices for gas. In some parts of the country, gas was almost $5.00 a gallon.
The men and women in Washington do not know anything about this kind of suffering, because they cannot remember the last time, they pulled up to a gas station and filled up their limousines. Tax-payers are paying for their gas
David knew what he was talking about when he said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted..."
We cannot feel the pain of others until we have suffered the same.
Afflictions in life can enlarge our capacity to understand and help other people.
It makes us:
• STRONG
• SYMPATHETIC
David said, it is good that I have been afflicted…
III. IT MAKES US SPIRITUAL
Listen, you will never see a person who is deeply and profoundly spiritual who has not gone through suffering.
Many of you would agree that the times in our lives when God was most real to us were those times when we most needed Him to help us through some hard time in life.
We can go further yet and say that nothing short of a disaster or some sort of calamity will make many individuals aware of God and their desperate need of Him.
In verse 67, David said, "Before I was afflicted..."
What about before he was afflicted?
The psalmist continues, "...I went astray: but now have I kept thy Word."
In the midst of afflictions, we grow spiritually.
This is why God has to allow certain afflictions and misfortunes to come our way.
Illus: On the 18th day of April 1906, when the great earthquake and fire happened in San Francisco, 300,000 people were turned into the streets homeless, hungry, and with no clothing save what they wore on their backs!
The terrible fire burned from quarter past five Wednesday morning until late Friday afternoon.
It was finally checked, not by the use of water, for the earthquake had broken the water mains and there was no water to be had, but by the use of dynamite, blowing up whole blocks of buildings to arrest the further progress of the fire.
This is an illustration of what has to happen in many lives.
The fire of godlessness and sin spreads in our souls until it threatens to bring complete moral and spiritual ruin.
To dynamite certain precious areas of our lives with misfortunes seems cruel, but there are times when nothing less severe will stop the progress of the blaze.
It is a merciful God who permits calamity to bring His rebellious and wandering children home again.
Conclusion:
It takes adversity in our lives to help us reach our full potential. David certainly had his share.
Much of it he brought upon himself, but he said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn thy statutes.”
Illus: A young boy was so slow to learn, that his parents thought him to be abnormal and the teachers classified him as a misfit.
• His classmates avoided him and seldom invited him to play with them.
• He failed his first college entrance exam.
• A year later, he tried again. In time he became the world's greatest scientist -- Albert Einstein.
He overcame many obstacles. We must do the same to grow spiritually.
WHY?
• Just because things don’t make sense to us, doesn’t mean they DON’T MAKE SENSE TO GOD!
• Just because we do not understand now, does not mean we will NEVER UNDERSTAND!
I believe when we get to heaven and God shows us why He did what He did…. we all are going to be walking around saying, “Yea! that make sense now!”
Illus: This reminds me of the baseball coach that said to one of his young players:
• "Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?" The little boy nodded yes.
• "Do you understand that what matters is whether we win together as a team?" The little boy nodded again and said, “Yes.”
• "So," the coach continued, "when a strike is called, or you are out at first, you don't argue or curse or attack the umpire. Do you understand all that?" Again, the boy nodded yes.
• "Good," said the coach. "Now go over there and explain it to your mother."
If God did things the WAY I do things; if God THOUGHT the way I THINK, it would take no faith to live the Christian life.
But HIS WAYS AND HIS THOUGHTS ARE NOT LIKE OURS, so it requires FAITH on our part to trust HIM.
Many times, we face something and it seems completely SENSELESS, but it makes SENSE to God.
It is good for us to be afflicted…
I. IT MAKES US STRONG
II. IT MAKES US SYMPATHETIC
III. IT MAKES US SPIRITUAL
