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Complete Sermon Notes
A Life Without Pain
Intro: The title is not realistic.
Moms tend to receive the most pain – they give, and give, and give…
“There’s not a day that passess that I don’t sit and cry, and look to heaven for a reason why. Couldn’t He have waited another year or two, until you were older and I had more time with you? “Forgive, me Lord,” I then say, all these thoughts are wrong, there had to be a reason and I know I must be strong.
You’re in the arms of Jesus now and i know that you’ll be fine, but i wish with all my heart that those arms could be mine.” Read at Mila [Me-la’s] memorial
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Men, you either comfort them in their pain, or you add to it.
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Our spouse is a picture of being made like us – “Bone of bone and flesh of my flesh” –
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Companionship linked with Covenant – “The two shall become one” –
“Pain isn’t the enemy. The inability or unwillingness to face pain is a far greater danger.” Excerpt from, Leadership Pain, The Classroom for Growth
1. Persevere through pain: Hannah – 1 Samuel 1 – The pain was that Hannah was barren.
Hannah’s Vow – 8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” 9 So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. 11 Then she made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”
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Always take it to the LORD: “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.”
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Persevered: Hannah had been waiting a long time.
The Blessing: Her son grew up to be Samuel—one of the most influential and godly men in all of Israel.
2. Stay committed during the pain: Ruth – “My people are your people”…
Ruth 1:15 And she [Naomi] said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”
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God honors commitment – Pain challenges our commitment “Blessed is the man who swears to his own hurt.”
The Blessing: Her lineage included Jesus – many times we can’t see the immediate reward of staying committed.
3. Maintain godly boldness through the pain: Esther – He went to Mordecai asked Esther to go before the king and ask that the family of Israel be spared. She agreed to go before the king without an invitation even if it meant death: “If I perish, I perish.”
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Pain often hinders boldness – do what is right even when we do not feel like it.
4. Protect your home [spiritually] even in the midst of the pain: Abigail – 1 Samuel 25 – 5 Strong Women From The Bible: Abigail was the wife of a wicked and self-centered man named Nabal. David (who had been anointed king, but had not yet taken office) sent servants to kindly ask Nabal to show hospitality to him and his servants. David’s servants had been companions and protectors of Nabal’s shepherds. Nabal’s response was that David was lazy and presumptuous. David, who was traveling with his men after the burial of Samuel, was angered at Nabal’s reply. David prepared his men for a fight.
Abigail heard what transpired between Nabal and the servants of David. She loaded up a feast and went to meet David along the way. She had hoped that her actions would calm David so that he would spare her family from death. David agreed to spare the family for Abigail’s sake. Nabal, thinking himself to be someone special because he told David to take a hike, threw a big party for himself. He was drunk and unable to protect himself. The next morning Abigail told Nabal that she had taken an offering to David and by doing so turned back the king and his 400 soldiers. Nabal was shocked to learn that his whole household could have been destroyed. So shocked, in fact, that the Bible says his heart died within him and he became as stone. Within 10 days he was dead.
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/5-strong-women-from-the-bible/
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Even when your husband is arrogant and addicted, you can still contend for your family – War Room.
5. Don’t allow past pain to prevent future blessings: Rahab meant Joshua: means ‘open’ or ‘wide’; Joshua means ‘Yahweh/God is my salvation’
JOSHUA 2:8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, 13 and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
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By faith, Rahab trusted in God: Hebrews 11:31 – “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.”
God can take a mess and make a miracle – Don’t allow pain to lead to bitterness and anger – Jesus came from Rahab
Did Joshua really need to spy out the land?
God will often send people in our path when we need rescuing – and he’ll send us to rescue others:
- Involved in the Community – WHEN YOU GIVE YOU RECEIVE
- Prison’s – WHEN YOU GIVE YOU RECEIVE
- Hospital Homes – WHEN YOU GIVE YOU RECEIVE
- AA and Al-Anon – WHEN YOU GIVE YOU RECEIVE
Life Without Pain: “I grew up in India where I saw thousands of lepers. They are often missing noses, ears, fingers, and toes—but not because their flesh rots away. (That’s a common misconception.) Various body parts become severely damaged because they don’t sense the warning signs of pain to stay away from dangers. Dr. Paul Brand worked with lepers in India and the United States.
In The Gift of Pain, coauthored by Philip Yancey, there is a story of four-year-old Tanya. When her mother brought Tanya to the national leprosy hospital in Carville, Louisiana, Dr. Brand immediately noticed the little girl appeared totally calm as he removed her bloodstained bandages and examined her dislocated ankle. As the doctor gently moved her foot to assess the extent of the damage, Tanya appeared bored. She felt no pain at all. Her mother explained that she first realized Tanya’s problem when she was only eighteen months old. She had left her daughter in a playpen for a few minutes. When she returned, she saw Tanya finger painting with large red swirls on the sheet. She hadn’t remembered giving her daughter any paint.
When she got closer, she screamed in horror. Tanya had bitten off the end of her finger and was using her blood as paint! When her mother screamed, the little girl looked up with “streaks of blood on her teeth.” Tanya suffered from a rare genetic malady called congenital indifference to pain, a condition very similar to leprosy. In every other way, she was a healthy little girl, but she felt no pain at all.
Seven years later, Tanya’s mother called Dr. Brand to tell him that the little girl had lost both legs to amputation as well as most of her fingers. Her elbows were constantly dislocated, and she suffered sepsis from ulcers on her hands and leg stumps. She had chewed her tongue so badly that it was swollen and lacerated. Years earlier, Tanya’s father left because he couldn’t handle the stress of raising her—he had called her “a monster.” Dr. Brand observed, “Tanya was no monster, only an extreme example…of life without pain.”
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