Good morning and welcome to those joining us by radio.  Today is the final message in our series on life’s healing choices. These messages are all available on our church website for anyone who wants to use them. Today we look at the 8^th healing choice.  We call it the sharing choice.  And speaking of sharing I have a couple pictures to share with you…

 

Let’s read the 8^th healing choice together. “The Sharing Choice – “Yield myself to be used by God to bring good news to others in my examples and words.”

The life, the joy, the fulfillment you are searching for can only be found in being used by God. When the world uses you, you end up in bondage, despair, and a wasted life. When you serve yourself alone, you end up at the same dead-end. But when you yield yourself to be used by God, you will find that God using you to change the world and what an incredible joy that is!

 

Do you remember what Jesus told the disciples just before he ascended into heaven? He said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

 

Power! We live in a world obsessed with power! We worship power. We covet power!  But the power Jesus is talking about here is very different that the power that impresses the world.

 

Last Wednesday night I asked the youth group how Jesus exhibited his power when he walked on the earth. They told me about feeding the 5,000 with a small boy’s lunch. They told me about how he walked on water and stilled the storm. About how he healed the blind, lame, and even raised the dead!  Impressive stuff!  He gathered a lot of crowds with that kind of power.

 

But Jesus’ greatest power wasn’t seen in the miracles he did. Where was it seen?  It was seen on the cross. The Bible says he emptied himself and became obedient to his Father, even to death on a cross. What kind of power is this?  Power revealed in weakness?

 

Every appearance screamed that he was a powerless, helpless victim.  Yet he was not. But he refused to use his incredible power to escape what was happening. He looked down from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”  He allowed himself to be used by God for the sake of God’s purpose in the salvation of the world. Thank you, Lord.

 

At the very place where he seemed most out of control, most vulnerable, the weakest – in actuality, the power of God was being exhibited through him in its most powerful way!  His greatest power was shown through what appeared to be his weakness moment.

 

So how about us? “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

Where will the power of our witness be most clearly seen? Open your Bibles to 2 Cor 1:8

Paul writes, “We don’t want you to be uniformed about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.” 2 Cor 1:8-10

Paul was at a dead end. He had come to the end of himself. Do you remember our first healing choice? We called it the reality choice. It’s facing the reality that I can’t fix it. If I could have, I would have. Somehow, we must all come to this place before real faith can begin.

 

Paul says, “we despaired even of life but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”  He implies that God allowed this for a reason. And the reason was so that they  would stop relying on themselves and instead rely on God who raises the dead!  And then he gives his witness – God did deliver us and he will continue to deliver us. The power of Paul’s testimony didn’t come out of his strength, it came out of his weakness.

 

Jump back to 2 Cor 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Cor 3-4

 

So let’s make some application.  Why does God allow suffering and hardship from our lives?  Some of it we may never fully know. After all God’s understanding is perfect, our very limited. But from what Paul has shared with us from his own experience we can learn at least 3 things.

Jesus said, “You will receive power when the HS comes upon and you will be my witnesses…”  If Jesus’ greatest witness came on the cross, how might God turn your hurts, hang-ups, habits into power for your witness? Turn to 2 Cor 12:1-10  Paul uses a second example.

 

Paul was an amazing guy. Before he met the Lord, he had been the best of the best. Best debater, best scholar, best persecutor of Christians.  Even after becoming a Christian we still see him as this spiritual superman. He’d been stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked, bitten by a poisonous snake, beaten within an inch of his life numerous times. He had even been transported to heaven, seen things no mortal man should see.  In every trial God rescued had him, healed him, helped him - in every case but one.

 

Anyone remember from last week what kind of messages Satan gives?  He’s the accuser, the finger pointer, the condemner.  What Paul’s thorn in the flesh was we don’t know. It may have been some kind of physical thing that made his appearance repulsive to himself and others. It may have been a disease like malaria or diabetes or a physical disability. It may have been psychological as in depression or arrogance. Maybe he was bi-polar? It may have been an addiction issue. Whatever it was, it was a hurt, hang-up, or habit that he couldn’t break.

It was chronic, persistent, and Paul felt it interfered with his power to witness and serve the Lord. So 3 times he prayed for the Lord to remove it.  I believe that means for 3 seasons of intense prayer, he asked God to take it away.  God’s answer is in verse 9…

 

Jesus said, “And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.”

Witnesses to what? God’s power to save those who can’t save themselves! John Newton put it this, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.” 

 

There are those say, “God helps those who help themselves.”   There is no power to change the world in that kind of witness. There is only failure and despair. The power to change the world comes in our witness to what God has done to rescue sinners like us.  Paul writes  2 Cor 12:9

 

Let’s read our beatitude for the day: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Mt 5:11-12

The Apostle Paul had received the best training the world had to offer in theology, philosophy, rhetoric and debate. As a result he couldn’t wait to travel to Athens, climb the rock known as Mars Hill, and debate the famous philosophers there concerning Jesus and the resurrection.

 

But things didn’t turn out as he had hoped.  In his own strength and wisdom, he failed miserably. As a result of this experience, he later wrote to the church in Corinth who lived just across the peninsula from Athens.  He said, “When I came to you…I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Cor 2:1-2

There are no perfect Christians, no perfect churches, no perfect pastors. But there are faithful Christians, faithful churches and faithful pastors who are proclaiming the good news that Jesus saves broken  people who fail, who fall short, who don’t measure up, who get discouraged, who come to the end of themselves and look up and say “Help, me Lord!”  

 

We know because this is what God has done for us.  That’s the testimony carries in it the power of God to transform the world. Andre Crouch wrote, “If I never had a problem, I’d never know that God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God could do!”