The purpose for broken people.

In Romans 12, we see the handling and treatment of difficult people, of those who have hurt us, and our response to them. But this little side road on cracked pots letting out the light has developed into a bit of a longer detour than I first intended.  We will get back to Romans in time, but let’s enjoy the scenery along the way and maybe pick up a few thoughts on why we are broken.

2 Corinthians 1 1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: 2Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 5For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.6And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.7And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

It is important to note that God is the God of all comfort: But knowing that we still ask :That is all well and good, God is a God of all comfort, but why? Why does it have to be like this? Why am I going through this? Why has God chosen me? The question we are asking today is:  Is there a plan and is there a purpose in my pain, in my affliction

 Note Paul has suffered, so have you. Suffering is part of the curse left by sin.
One common misconception about suffering is this:  “if you are spiritual you will never be confused, never get in a tizzy, you'll never shed a tear, you'll never buckle under pressure. In life you will always have success.”

 Forget that, this is absolute nonsense! The greatest men in the Bible were men that at times were   greatly perplexed, in great distress, great tribulation, some of them in great depression.  Charles Spurgeon   prayed that God would never put on you what God put on him in his life! Don't think that because you're going through trouble, that in some way God is punishing you - that might be the case, but it's not always the case.

Another  common misconception is that life should be easy and have no hardships, But That’s not life, is it.Now the sooner, as believers, we grab hold of that the better. For some of us live in a dream world where nothing goes wrong and we don't expect any trouble.

 If you turn to chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, we see that life was not like that for Paul. He was beaten, he was whipped, he was put in prison, he was out on the ocean in shipwreck, he was despised, told lies about, he was chased by false prophets - men swore upon their own lives in fasting that they would kill him before they would eat. Life is not easy, there was never ever a promise that it would be so. So forget about those two things, put them to death now - one: that you're unspiritual if you suffer and if you're perplexed, and two: that life ought to be a breeze
Now God allows things into our lives..I don’t know why. BUT God knows why. Several things suggested by this passage.

We said God is the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies.When dark,you have to trust that. Believe there is a purpose, Thank God for the purpose and praise him .
Asaph is the Psalmist who wrote

Psalm 57  1Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast  2I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. 3He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 4My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 5Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.6They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. 7My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.9I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.10For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

He is in difficulty and IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, verse 7 he makes a decision: I am in a pit BUT I am determined to sing and give praise. THAT is the realization that God is on this.  see, he says awake my glory, get stirred up inside me ,my soul. Have faith. Is that easy? NO, but it is essential to your growth (impossible to pleas him w.o faith) God wants to be trusted.

  This is where the rubber meets the road - and this is where I fail so much in my life.  God loves to be trusted'. God loves to be trusted! Do you trust Him? I mean, do you really trust Him? The One who says the hairs of your head are numbered  when you read the Gospels - In George Mueller's biography   the writer A.T. Pierson quotes  the Gospel writers emphasis on God's care for us in our trials. He says that it speaks of the odd sparrow, do you remember the odd sparrow? If you look to Matthew 10 you will find that it records there that two sparrows are sold for a farthing, two sparrows for one farthing. Now if you go to Luke chapter 12, you find there that five sparrows are sold for two farthings. Now why is that? Well, it would appear that when the man was buying four sparrows that the man who was selling threw in an extra sparrow for nothing - have you got that? In other words that fifth sparrow, that odd sparrow, was of little value and so worthless that it was able to be given away with the other four. Yet God says through the Lord Jesus, even that one sparrow is not worth being taken into the account of that man's deal, but God cares for it!   God cares for what the world thinks is worthless and hopeless - to Him it's priceless. Not one of them, He says, will be forgotten. Not one of them will fall to the ground without God knowing it - and what a force, when the Lord illustrates it like that, and then He comes to His children and says: 'Fear ye not therefore, for ye are of more value than many sparrows'.

But , back to 2 Cor. not only that we may trust God, believe he has a plan and purpose: Also that  we may pass along the comfort we have gotten from the Lord.

I have often stated that if I have a diagnosis of Lymphoma, the first person I am going to talk to is Jim. Why? He has walked there, he understands, he has been through things and can help me. 

 In our trials and troubles we can shine a light of confidence in God (that grows by the way) I remember Carmen, trusting God through her cancer. She was growing..(told her daughter-in-law “I’m not exactly thrilled over this you know ). Steve Brown stated once that when a pagan gets cancer God lets a believer get it so the world can see the difference. I am not sure that's good theology, but IT OUGHT to shine out in practice.

And when we suffer and grow in understanding and hope,then suddenly there is another person in our lives and we can come along side them in their distress.

I got this e-mail this week and it seemed appropriate.

Come with me to a third grade classroom....... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet.. He  thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.  It's never happened before, and  he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives...
 The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his  head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.

 The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is  saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you,  Lord!'

 Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All  the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful . But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.

 She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you  klutz!'

 Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and  whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?'  Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too..'

This girl had the right heart. She had God’s heart in the matter and we need it too.

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Rom 15:4