“Sweet Bitterness From God”
March 21, 1999
Do people that are used by God have something in common?
Before we answer that question, you need to know that today’s topic will be bitter before it is sweet. However, if you embrace it, satisfaction will pervade to the depths of your soul!
The topic of this message is contrary to most of what is preached and taught on Christian TV and in Christian books today. Yet it is light years ahead in truth compared to the prosperity gospel.
Note this in 5 men’s lives… Moses was banished to Midian for 40 years; Isaiah lamented “Woe is me;” Nebuchadnezzer ate grass like a cow for 7 years; Peter wept bitterly after denying Christ, and Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus.
Those men had a traumatic spiritual event, a “crisis of faith.” Something so powerful it changed them for the rest of their life. This morning we only have time to examine Moses. But I want to strongly encourage you to study the other men yourself.
Let’s think about Moses for a moment. He was a man on a mission from God, called to lead the children of Israel out of bondage and into the promised land. Moses communed with God and had a clear sense of direction. He KNEW God’s will for Israel… AND that he was called to lead them.
But do you remember the obstacles & difficulties between his burning bush experience and the promised land? If not, let me jog your memory just a bit.
Some of the difficulties included…
1) His wife (Zipporah) opposed his calling (Ex 4:20-26). 2) The people grumbled against him because of thirst (Ex 15:24) & hunger (Ex 16:2-3). 3) They voiced their impatience because of the length of the journey (Num 21:4-6). 4) After receiving the 10 Commandments, Moses was grieved and angered that the people had turned from God to worshipping idols (Ex 32). 5) Aaron & Mariam (Moses’ Sister) openly opposed him (Num 12). 6) Isreal voted not to follow his leadership into the promised land (Num 14:2-4). 7) And Korah challenged his authority (Num 16).
Then because of Israel’s disobedience, Moses endured 40 years of hardship. HE wandered in the desert… HE heard their complaining… HE saw friends die… HE had to wait.
PAUSE… Which of us would endure decades of hardship, difficulty, and tribulation for any cause? How many of us could bear that kind of adversity? Most of us would probably bail out!
I wonder, to do what you KNOW is right, would YOU… endure family opposition, your friends rebelling against you, people complaining, questioning your integrity, trying to run you off, rejecting your leadership by a vote, and then suffer because of THEIR sin?… Moses did!
That is amazing to me! How was he able to continue in the midst of constant adversity? What was it that kept him going 80 years after he received his call from God?…
Moses was able because he was a man of the highest spiritual integrity, character, and strength. Moses was a Godly man. Numbers 12:3 describes him this way…
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.”
But HOW did he get that way? Moses was used by God because he had been broken by God.
Moses was humble because God used situations and circumstances to break him. Before God uses anyone, He breaks them. He brings them to a place in their life where they flee to Him, and Him alone, because there is no place else to go.
The events of Moses’ life, from birth, were orchestrated by God for him to become Israel’s deliverer. But before God used Moses, God broke Moses. Some examples…
Example 1: God removed him from prominence in Egypt to being a wandering shepherd… to learn that power does not reside in the authority of man, but in God alone.
Example 2: God banished him to tend sheep for 40 years… to learn God’s timing is right, patience, and the lesson of how dangerous pride is.
Example 3: God gave Moses slowness of speech to teach him that eloquence is not in what is said, but in Who gives what to say.
Example 4: God overwhelmed Moses with the enormity of the task of leading God’s people so that he would completely depend upon Jehovah God and not himself or human counsel.
God used those things to mold him into a man He could use. To make Moses a person who was dependent upon God for EVERYTHING.
** Brokenness is God’s method for bringing about spiritual maturity. ** P-A-U-S-E
I fought against that idea for a long time. I thought that God did NOT have to do that to use someone. But the more I’ve studied, the more I am solidly convinced that IS the case… AND THAT IS THE ONLY MEANS GOD USES! Listen to Ps 51:17…
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart…”
For years I questioned why?! WHY must God break us to use us? Consider…
It’s a matter of pride. We want to be powerful, influential, and well known. The person others look to for help. But God’s desires are not our desires… or ways (Is 55:8)! Listen to 1 Cor 1:27-29…
“… God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.”
Because we are prideful, God destroys every vestige of it in your lives before he will use us. Once God has done that, THEN he will use you! WHY? Look again at verse 29… “So that no one may boast before Him…”
So I suggest that God is in the process of doing that very thing in YOUR life!
Listen, the things that happen in your life are NOT accidents or coincidences. They take place because of God. You are who and what you are because God willed it. 1 Cor 15:10…
“…By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
God will use anyone, including you, to advance HIS kingdom, but he requires submission to His way of doing things. And as long as you resist God’s work, you will be empty and frustrated. Because if you do things your way, you get the glory. But God’s will is to glorify himself (Is 42:8).
“I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another…”
For that reason, the person God uses is the one who has been broken by Him. (PAUSE) Those who have been broken are the ones who give glory to God in all things.
Those people have given their life, purposes, and desires into His hand. Those are the people who are “content in whatever circumstances” they are in. Because they have learned, through experience, that perfect fellowship with God is sweeter than ANY plan, goal, dream, or purpose in life.
So examine yourself (2 Cor 13:5). Life events are God at work! And here’s where to look.
Relationships: How well you get along w/ people at home, work and church. Health: physical & emotional (God controls these: 1 John 5:16, 1 Cor 11:30, 1 Sam 16:14-15). Last, your finances.
In those areas; Is there adversity? Have plans failed? Is there opposition? Are you frustrated? Do you lack contentment & peace?
It may be that God is causing, or allowing, those difficulties to call you closer to Him! You must get alone with Him. Ask what is going on and what HE is trying to teach you (Ja 1:5). Repent of the sin He reveals to you. Then your perspective on life will change.
Jesus told us that complete surrender to God is the only way of “success” in Jn 12:25-28…
"He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27 Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ’Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Thy name." There came therefore a voice out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
Brokenness is the means by which God grants abundant life! Notice that Jesus was troubled by the events that transpired in His own life. But he KNEW those were God’s will. He did not desire his own comfort, but for God to be glorified. And God affirmed He would be glorified!
Question: Do you glorify God in all things? In your conduct? Speech? At work? At school? On dates? At home? Until God’s glory is your first priority, don’t expect to have an abundant life, abiding peace, or for God to use you mightily. It just won’t happen!
And understand that if you fight against God as He works in your life, Hebrews 12:6-11 will take effect in ever increasing measures…
“…The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Q: Have you been oblivious to God’s work in your life? Have events been misread as “just a part of life” instead of what they really are… God’s activity? For those who desire to walk close with God and know His power. Brokenness is the ONLY way to experience revival, renewal, and awakening!
So we must embrace brokenness. We must boldly ask God to do whatever it takes to do His work in our life. And that takes tremendous courage!
Only then can we agree with Paul what he wrote in 2 Cor 12:7-10…
“And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me-- to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I may be beginning to understand adversity as God’s way of strengthening me. Thus I am thankful for hard times, trouble, and trials. Because they make me stronger in Christ!
Before God uses an individual… OR A CHURCH… He will break them so that their dependence is upon Him alone. CONTRAST: Some people have had a “crisis of faith” and instead of fleeing to Christ for comfort (See Heb 4:16), they have sought answers elsewhere.
The result has been frustration and anxiety. Q: When your crisis of faith hit, how did you respond? Who did you turn to?
Have you ever been broken by God? Has He been working in your life? Have you been fighting against Him? Do you not understand that He is conforming you to His son… He is preparing you to be used for His glory? Surrender to Christ today & God will revive your life…
