The Rescuer
Austin White · Tidal Church Moncton · December 3, 2023 · The God I Want series
Austin White teaches from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 that God does not always rescue us from hardship. He grows us through it, stays with us in it, and will rescue us in the end, so we can live with heaven in mind.
More from Austin White · The The God I Want series
Topics: Hope, Faith, Suffering
Transcript
[0:00] Church, we're in this series called The God I Want, looking at some of the misconceptions or some of the ways that we might mistake who God really is this Christmas season. And I have a question for you. Have you ever mistaken somebody? Have you ever thought somebody was somebody else? Maybe as a child, you were in a store and you went up to somebody that you were sure was your mom, and it turns out that it wasn't. Maybe you're in public and you think that you spot one of your friends, you go up to them and it just turns out to be their identical twin. Now, for me, it reminds me of a story from a couple years back. I had been working at the church for about six months, and I had this intern with the youth ministry, and his name was Austin Buckley. And him and I were quite close. I had gone on a mission trip with him.
[0:46] I had been his camp counselor. I had mentored him during school, and he was interning with me that spring. Now, one day we had a meeting scheduled for 9:00 AM. So I was sitting in my office and 9:00 AM came around and I heard footsteps come into my office. And without looking up, I just said, "Hey, Bubba." And as I looked up, I realized it was none other than Pastor Jim Clements, who I just called Bubba. So in that moment, I had mistaken Pastor Jim for somebody else. And I think for us as Christians, sometimes we mistake who God is as well. Maybe the God I want isn't the same as the God that we discover in Scripture. Now, specifically today, I want to talk from this misconception.
[1:36] The God I want is a God that will destroy any hardship in my life. The God I want is somebody who will make my life easier. The imagery that we're going to use today is the God I want is a rescuer. He's somebody who can conquer my situations. He's somebody who can make my life easy. And we're gonna use the sword as our imagery here today. And I think that this misconception, especially as we go through difficulties in our life, as we go through and navigate different circumstances, sometimes we can start to blame God. Sometimes when we have situations, we can blame God, or maybe we could even blame ourself and we could say, "God, did I do something wrong?
[2:22] I'm going through this struggle. Is it because of some sin in my life? Is it because of something that I did?" And when we look at this imagery, I think that the God that we want, we want Him to conquer. We want Him to remove hardships from our life. But the one that we see in Scripture is a little bit different than that. And we're gonna be going to 2 Corinthians 12, verses 7 through 10. So I'd encourage you to flip there with me, but before we open up the Word, let me go ahead and pray for us. Father God, I ask that as we open up Your word, that it would illuminate our lives. Lord, help us to be convicted. Lord, instruct us, teach us, mold us, and Holy Spirit, I ask that it wouldn't be my words, but that You would speak through me.
[3:08] We thank You that Your word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And in the shifting sands of culture in this world, Lord, we get to have You as our firm foundation. Lord, we love You and we thank You, Jesus, that You came to this earth, You became a human so that You could die for our sins. So Jesus, we thank You for the season. I just ask that as we go into the busyness of the holidays, that, Lord, we would stay focused on what truly matters. So Lord, help prepare our hearts and our minds and our bodies for what You want to say to us this morning. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. This is the Word of the Lord. "I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
[3:58] But He said to me," He says to you, "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I'm weak, then I am strong." Here we've got the Apostle Paul, somebody who wrote over half of the New Testament, somebody who was planting churches and was doing incredible things for the Lord. He's going through hardship in his life and he begs God, not once, not twice, but three times, for God to take it away.
[4:45] And what is God's response? He says, "My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness." God wants him to rely on His power through the struggle, through the hardship. Maybe Paul was looking for a rescuer. Maybe Paul was looking for deliverance from the struggle. Maybe Paul was looking for a sword and a conqueror or somebody to deliver him from his hardship. What I want to do this morning is I wanna look at three things from Scripture that we need to remember when we're going through hardship, that God's not always going to rescue us from our difficulties, but three things that we need to keep in mind. The first thing is this: The Messiah will not rescue us from every hardship that we face.
[5:30] We will go through troubles, we will go through trials. I love this passage from Isaiah 43:1-3. It says, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. Some people need to hear that this morning, that God says, 'You are mine.' What a powerful reminder. You are mine. When you pass through waters, I'll be with you. And when you pass through rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." It doesn't say in this passage that you won't go through fire. It doesn't say in this passage that you won't go through rivers. The truth is that throughout our lives, we're gonna go through all of these different circumstances, and we have to embrace the fact that God will not deliver us from all of these circumstances.
[6:25] As I was preparing for this message, I read this quote, a longer one from Michael Naam. Naomi, key challenges are a part of life. He said, "It's actual proof that you are living. Challenges provide two options. Either you can exhibit fear or demonstrate faith. It's your ability to overcome with the never quit mentality that invokes the joy of victory, being encouraged that as a Christian, you won the battle even before it began. You can have hope in God's victory. You're an automatic candidate for victory. And so persist, victory is on the horizon." Here's the truth: Difficulties grow us as we go through life. We don't need to look at difficulties and hardships and challenges as obstacles so much as opportunities for us to grow in our faith.
[7:17] And when we have a right mindset and a right framework for our difficulties, what that's gonna do is, instead of taking it as an opportunity to blame God, blame our circumstances, or even blame ourselves, we can view this as an opportunity for the testing and strengthening of our faith. I've used this illustration before that, this reminds me of a story down in the States. A couple, a group of scientists had made a dome where they were going to put all different types of nature: trees, bushes, wildlife, and they put it in this dome that was covered from any of the elements. They planted trees. And as the trees grew up, as soon as they hit a certain height, these trees just fell right down. The scientists were perplexed.
[8:03] But as they did research, they realized that the reason that these trees stood up in the wild is because when storms came, as they were growing, their roots grow deeper. As winds, storms, rain comes, the trees are blown as they're growing and the roots go deeper and they're able to stand tall. I would argue the same is true for us as Christians, that if we don't have struggles, if we don't have difficulties, if we don't have storms, that's not an opportunity for us, for our roots to grow down in Christ. That's not an opportunity for us to start to trust and build resilience and perseverance in the Lord, that as we go through life, we need to realize that that's the strengthening and the growing of our faith.
[8:52] As Christians, we need to go through storms. I love the book of James, and in James 1:2-4, he starts off by saying, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." The next time that we go through challenges, the next time we get hit by sickness or maybe a death in the family, what if we took that as an opportunity to trust in the Lord? What if we took that as an opportunity to realize that perseverance is built through these difficult times? So how do hardships strengthen us and shape us in our relationship with God?
[9:39] The first thing I think is it refines and strengthens our faith. Just as gold is purified in a fire, our faith is refined through the challenges that we face. When we encounter hardship, we have the opportunity to trust God more deeply and rely on His strength. I also believe that it develops perseverance and character. Hardship provides fertile ground for developing perseverance and character in our lives. When we face obstacles and difficulties, we get to demonstrate resilience, steadfastness and faith in Jesus. Romans 5:3-5 says, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."
[10:31] This is counter-cultural, church, for our culture. It says, run to comfort. Do what feels best. Our culture tries to point us to pleasure instead of our purpose in Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, culture will encourage us to follow our heart, to choose what feels best, to choose the path of least resistance. But the truth is that Christ doesn't call us to that, that when we go through the difficulties of life, we're developing perseverance and character. Hardships also cultivate humility and dependence on God. They remind us of our need for God's guidance, His strength and His provision. They humble us and prevent us from relying solely on our own abilities and understanding.
[11:19] It puts things in perspective. When we go through life's difficulties, it reminds us that we are not God and that we need Him. That we're not self-reliant. We're not self-sufficient. We're not self-empowered, but ultimately, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit through life's ups and downs. Finally, hardships shape us by building compassion and empathy. Through our own hardships, we develop compassion and empathy for others who are going through similar struggles. We become better equipped to provide comfort, support, and understanding for those in our lives. Sometimes I find that God will use your testimony and use your struggles and your stories to impact people with those same things. Some of the best ministry leaders in our church are people who are able to impact groups that they're ministering to because they've gone through the same thing.
[12:11] God never wastes your hurts. He never wastes your struggles because He's gonna use those things and use your story to impact those around you. When I'm talking to teens who are going through a tough time, I remind them that God is gonna use their story to encourage other people because you can't argue with a changed life. You can't argue with what God is doing in your life, and you can use that as a testimony to God's goodness. So these struggles, these hardships allow us to point people back to Jesus. Some of the deepest Christians and most faithful followers that I've met have gone through the most, the people who have experienced the goodness of God through the darkest times, but continue to praise Him and draw close to Him.
[12:58] So the first thing that we need to remember is that God won't rescue us from all hardships. But the second thing that we must remember is the Messiah is with us. Through every hardship we face, He is with us. Turn to your neighbor and say, "He is with us. He's with us." Nahum 1:7 says, "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust in Him." Sometimes I think we feel God's presence the most when we go through challenging times, when we're going through a dark valley. We feel God's presence like no other. Amy K. Hall wrote that Christ is the greatest prize in this life, not comfort.
[13:47] I would contend that if we had an easy life, we would start to rely on ourselves and not on the Lord. That if we had an easy life, we would start to not reach out to God. We would start to believe that maybe life is easy because of my own strength, my own accomplishments, my own deeds. What do we see in the book of Judges and learn from the history of Israel? When they settled down in Israel and got comfortable, they forgot about the Lord, which ultimately led them to troubles as they strayed away from God. We have to pursue Christ, not comfort. There's nothing comfortable about following Jesus. Matthew 16:24 says that we have to pick up our cross daily and follow God.
[14:37] There's nothing comfortable about that. So for us, we need to realize that through the discomfort, through the struggles, through the trials, we've got to rely on God, and He is with us through it all. I would argue that comfort in our walk with Jesus often leads to complacency. I wanna discuss a couple signs of a complacent Christian, and you know, this wasn't even in my notes until yesterday, and I just felt God wake me up. And this was in the middle of the night. I felt God wake me up and He said, we need to talk about complacency in our relationship with Jesus. And I wonder if this'll hit home for some of us today. What does complacency in our walk with Christ look like?
[15:23] The first thing is daily Scripture. Reading isn't a part of your routine. You're not going back to the source. It's optional for you to spend time with God in His Word. Ultimately, for us as Christians, if we're going to follow Jesus in this convoluted world, in this world that says, follow your heart, you do, we have got to know the playbook. We have got to read God's Word. I always get concerned when somebody says, I heard God say, and they don't follow it up quickly with Scripture. This is our playbook. This is our manuscript. This is what we rely on. So number one is daily Scripture. Reading isn't a part of your routine. The second is church is optional or not a priority for you. Some studies find that the average Christian goes to church once a month.
[16:14] Man, imagine if we talked to the early church who are persecuted, who struggled, and we talked about the incredible privilege we have here in Canada of being able to go to church freely. It's not illegal to go to church. We're not persecuted necessarily for going to church. And for the early Christians to see that stat of church being optional for so many of us, we need to be in community. We need to have corporate worship. We need to be surrounded by believers through church on Sundays, through small group, through serving. Church is not optional. Why is it for me, where I play on the local Moncton rugby team? Why is it for me that it's totally acceptable when I miss practice for one of my teammates to reach out to me and say, Hey Austin, why weren't you at practice this week?
[17:07] Why is it acceptable for my teammates to call me out when I don't make it to practice? But it's okay for us as Christians to miss out on church. How is it that practice and being there for my team and showing up and putting in the work is more expected and more socially acceptable for people to hold me accountable than us holding one another accountable to be in the body of Christ? Church is not optional. We have got to make sure that we don't fall into complacency when it comes to church and community. The third thing is that when you're a complacent Christian, prayer is transactional. You only pray occasionally. And when things aren't going well, it's just a conversation that happens every now and again.
[17:53] It's like a child that just comes to you when they want money or they just come to you in these certain circumstances when they need help. We've gotta make sure that our conversation with God is vibrant. It's regular and it's intimate. We can't allow prayer to be transactional. Finally, a complacent Christian allows their theology to be based on the world and not God's Word. Are you trying to fit theology into a certain political ideology? Are you reading God's Word? Not through God's eyes, but through our own selfish lens? So those are the signs of a complacent Christian. But what I wanna do is I wanna look at the signs of an all-out follower for Jesus.
[18:39] Spiritual disciplines are a key part of an all-out follower's life: prayer, Bible study, reflection, serving, giving. The next is your giving of your time, your finances and energy to the Lord. The Bible says, where your treasure is, your heart will be there. Also, followers of Jesus are radically generous. We're known by what we give. We are a generous people. The third thing is you're practicing evangelism and sharing the good news with others. The truth is, if you're obsessed with something, you can't stop sharing about it. That's something that Pastor Jeremy touched on last week. If you're obsessed, if you're on fire, you can't help but share the reason for your joy, the reason for your peace, the reason why you get up in the morning, you can't help but share it with those around you.
[19:26] That's why I would say that one of the biggest opportunities outta the 52 weeks of the year, the biggest opportunity for you is coming these next couple weeks to invite people to Christmas, to invite people to the incredible joy that comes with this time of year. Can we just imagine for a second, church, the idea of this Christmas season, devoid of Christ? There are people in your workplace, people in your family and your friend groups that desperately need an invitation. You have no idea how the Holy Spirit wants to work through one of those cards. You have no idea how a trajectory, how a family, how a legacy can be changed by a simple invite. You have no idea, a moment of discomfort of, oh man, like how will they react or what if they don't end up coming?
[20:14] A moment of discomfort can change somebody's life forever. We need to be an invitational church. We need to take evangelism seriously as a church. The fourth thing is the fruit of the Spirit. We can't just talk the talk, church. We've gotta walk the walk, experiencing His love, His joy, His peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We have got to experience the fruit of the Spirit as we draw closer to Him. The fifth thing is having a solid circle of other Christians through church, small group, church and small group. You're the average of the three people that you spend the most time around. Who is in your inner circle, and are they drawing you closer to Christ? The final thing as a sign of an all-out follower of Jesus is your worldview.
[21:03] Decisions and lifestyle is dictated by God's Word. Ultimately, your firm foundation is here. This is where you, this is the framework that you base your decisions, your lifestyle, your big decisions around. So why do I say all this? James 1 says, as we draw close to God, He will draw close to us as we talk about. The second point, the Messiah is with us through every hardship that we face. We need to realize that God respects our free will. He's not gonna force Himself on us. If we don't draw close to Him, He won't draw close to us. He respects your free will and your decision to be close to Him. He's with us through every hardship we face if we choose Him.
[21:51] One of the best promises in Scripture is at the very end of Matthew's Gospel. It's Matthew 28:20. And Jesus says this, His final words before He goes up to heaven, and He says, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. What a mic drop moment for Jesus to end His ministry saying that. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age in the midst of our struggles. It's not about an escape from hardship, but with an encounter with a God who is always with us, an encounter with a God who is greater than the struggles that we face. Because ultimately, God's divine strength transforms our weakness and is a platform for God's glory. One of the best and one of the best testimonies to a lost and broken world is when we're going through difficulty and they see the joy of the Lord in us, and they realize that the reason why we have peace, the reason why we're going on is because we're not relying on our own strength.
[22:52] Hebrews 13:6 says this, we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?" My final point is this, the Messiah will rescue us from hardship. In the end, the Messiah will rescue us from hardship. In the end, 2 Timothy 4:18 says, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Here's the great thing for us as Christians, in the end, we win. We win. Jesus won the war. We're still fighting some battles here on earth, but in the end, we win. The incredible thing is we know the end. We've read the end of the book.
[23:39] We know how this story is going to end. We win. I say to my teens, absolutely. I say to my teens, who sometimes can be so wrapped up in the present, right, middle school, when you're in middle school or you're in high school, sometimes it feels like that's all that there is. I tell them often that they can't put their hope in their life here on this earth. They've gotta put their hope in heaven, and they need to make sure that they keep heaven in perspective. And I think the same is true for the teens in this room, but also for us as adults. We get so focused on what's right here in front of us that we forget that there's a greater hope, that we've got something to look forward to, that we've read the spoiler at the end of the book, and we know that we have hope greater than something in this lifetime.
[24:32] In the midst of stress, sickness, financial troubles, deaths in the family. We know that this world isn't it, that there's more than meets the eye, that we have a reward in heaven. It says, God is preparing a mansion for you. You've got a place and a spot in heaven when you give your life to Jesus. 2 Peter 3:13 says, "But in keeping with His promise, we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells." We're gonna get in trouble if we get too focused on this earth and on the hardships of this life, and forget what's waiting for us. I recently saw this illustration from Francis Chan, and it involves a rope. I know the last time I preached, I also used a rope.
[25:17] So forgive me, but Francis Chan, who many of you know, he's a fantastic author and writer, and he uses this rope as an illustration. And what I want you to do is I want you to imagine that this rope goes on forever, okay? So this rope goes on forever. And for us as Christians, our life is just this little tiny piece. Our life here on earth, this little tiny piece of the rope, and then the rope goes on forever, and we get so worried and pent up and focused on this little tiny piece of eternity called our time here on earth. We start living for this life instead of living with heaven in mind.
[26:04] We get anxious and depressed and focused not on the reality and the hope and heaven, not on the end of the book. We get so focused here. But for us as Christians, we've gotta realize that in the end, we win. Jesus wins. There's more to the story than the struggle we're going through. There's more to the story than just this little part of eternity here. So for us as Christians, we can have hope in knowing that there is more than meets the eye. We need to live with heaven in mind. So this Christmas season, I hope you'll remember the truth, that God won't rescue us from every hardship, but He grows us through it.
[26:56] God is with us during every hardship, and He'll give us comfort and peace. And finally, that God will rescue us from hardship. In the end that we win, and we know the end of the story. Let me go ahead and pray for us. Father God, I thank You for Your word. I thank You for the fact that we know the end of this story. Lord, whatever troubles come our way, I pray that we would keep Your word in perspective, knowing that Your love has no limits, knowing that Your kindness, Your grace, sustains us. Lord, I pray that as we walk out of this place, that we would walk out with an assurance of knowing that whatever life throws at us, we have a Savior, we have a friend, we have a Rescuer who will rescue us.
[27:51] In the end, we pray this in Your name, amen.