If you have your Bibles, turn with us over to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. I'll read about four verses of Scripture, and we'll try not to be long tonight. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. 2 Corinthians, that's right after 1 Corinthians. God made it easy, see? We can find it. But 2 Corinthians 11, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 24. And if you found that, you can and will and able to stand. If you're not able, that's fine. God understands. This is Paul writing here to the church in Corinth, and he says, of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day have I been in the deep. in journeyings often, in pearls of waters, in pearls of robbers, in pearls by my own countrymen, in pearls by the heathern, in pearls in the city, in pearls in the wilderness, in pearls in the sea, in pearls among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness, beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, for the privilege and opportunity to be able to come this way Thank You, Lord. There's not a friend like Jesus. No, not one. There's no one could save us except Him. And Lord, we just thank You that You loved us enough, that You sent Your Son, but we realize that love wasn't enough. It took His death on the cross. It took Him paying the sin debt for us that we could have the hope that we have here tonight. Lord, thank you for that. Now pray. Bless your word. Know you will. You promised it would not return void. Lord, bless each one that's come this way. Now use this unworthy vessel. Speak to these lips of clay the very words that need to be said. God, may I not say anything that would not be pleasing to you. And may we honor you in all that's done and said here tonight. These things we ask in Christ's precious name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Now last Sunday night, I mentioned the fact that I'm a big Peanuts cartoon fan. I love the Peanuts cartoon, Snoopy, and the whole gang. And I seen the cartoon this week. Peppermint Patty, now she was a big-time tomboy, if any of you are familiar with the cartoon. She's a tomboy. She could strike Charlie Brown out with three straight pitches. And then she has a friend named Marcy that's a nerd, a very smart little girl. And they're sitting in class. And Peppermint Patty is sitting in front of Marcy and she's looking at a paper and she says, the question is, what made America great? And she looks back at Marcy and says, what did you put down? And Marcy said, I put down faith and courage and hard work. She said, what did you put down? Peppermint Patty said, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And I don't agree with that. I think it's fried bologna sandwiches and myself. But I want to use the thought tonight, what makes people great? What is it that makes people great? Well, is it education? No, I don't think so. You know, there's a lot of people, I'm sure probably tens of thousands of folks in the world today that has PhDs that are very well educated, but they're not great. They're lonely, and they've not amounted to very much. Now, I'm not trying to minimize education. I wish I had more, and it's good But if you studied the book of Proverbs, you'll find that the wisest man said that knowledge is good, but you need wisdom to go with it. Knowledge is knowing something, but wisdom is knowing how to use it, you see, how to apply it or whatever. And so it's not education. Is it wealth? No, it's not that. There's a lot of wealthy people in this world that are miserable as they can be. In fact, I've just been studying in the book of Proverbs, and the Bible tells us there that great riches causes people to be unhappy because they're worried about losing them, you see. And so it's not, well, is it vain? There's a lot of people that's got fame the wrong way, and I guess we'd call them infamous, not famous. And so, no, fame is not the thing. I mean, you look at a lot of these high-paid athletes, you look at these rock stars that commit suicide, actors that are making millions of dollars commit suicide because they're unhappy, and so it's not fame that makes some people important or great. Is it power? Well, That's not it either. I mean, you look at Hitler. He had a lot of power. I wouldn't call him great. He did a lot of great disservice, a lot of great injury to people, but I would not call him great. And there's many others you could categorize. Pharaohs and some Caesars and other dictators. And there's even today people that have a lot of power, but I wouldn't call them great. What about talent? Well, a lot of people's got a lot of talent and just simply don't use it. But what is it that makes people great? You ain't gonna believe this. Trouble. Trouble makes people great, you see. Some of the greatest people that you could read about, especially in the Bible, is people that had a lot of trouble, but They faced that trouble through the power of the Holy Spirit, submissive unto God, and God used them, you see. Now, let me say three things before I get into the message. First of all, don't go looking for trouble. I mean, you're going to find all that you want. It's going to come your way. Job said, yet a man is born under trouble as the sparks fly upward. And then in another place he said, man is born of a woman a few days and full of trouble. And so, we're going to have plenty of trouble in our lives, and so don't go looking for it. It's going to find you. Stay away from it as much as possible, and you're still going to have more than you ever want, you see. Secondly, don't laugh at other people for their trouble, you see. The Bible says in Proverbs 24, 17, Rejoice not when your enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth. And so we're not to rejoice when our enemy has problems and troubles, and not to laugh at, hey, you might be facing the same thing tomorrow. And so don't laugh at others when they are going through trouble. And then the third thing, Don't ignore trouble. God's trying to teach us something. The things that come our way, hey, you see, if we believe, and I do, that God's on the throne, that He's in charge, that He oversees everything. In fact, the Bible says that God turneth the heart of the kings, you see. And so God's in charge. I know we just had an election a while back, and Not to be political, but I was praying that it would go a certain way, but I made the statement that the election's going to turn out the way God allows it to, you see. And He's in charge, He's in total control, and so God's got a lesson in everything that comes our way, and so don't ignore it. Let God teach you what he wants to teach you. And so I want you to notice three things, and I won't be long. First of all, trouble energizes us. For example, you see, trouble will stir us up in the right way if we'll allow it to. You remember, for example, when Paul was on his second missionary journey, and I mentioned, I think it was last Sunday, where they were stowed in prison in Philippi and how God miraculously brought them out. Well, when they left there, you see, they went to a place called Thessalonica. He wrote two letters to the church there at Thessalonica. But they went there and preached a while, and many believed, but the unbelievers stirred up the folks and caused a big riot. And so they had to sneak Paul and Silas and them out of town to get them away from the trouble. And so they go down the road, and there's another city down there called Berea. And they go there and they begin to preach there and teach about Jesus there. And the Bible says that they were more notable there in Berea than they were in Thessalonica, for they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was preaching was actually so. And I always told churches where I pastored, hey, don't take my word for it. You study the Bible, you see. I remember one church I pastored. I was teaching on eternal salvation. And there was a couple that had gotten saved in the last revival, and they didn't believe that. And afterwards, she was telling me that she told her husband, he's wrong. And I'm going to prove him wrong. And so I was teaching a series on a Wednesday night, and I said, now, I'm not asking you to believe it. I said, I'm your pastor. I believe it. And you have a right to know why I believe it. And so I'm going to teach it and tell you why. And at the end, then, I'm going to let you ask all the questions you want, and I'll do my best to answer them. And I said, but now, Stay with me. Stay home. Don't say, now he's wrong. I said, wait till we get through it and then make your opinion. Well, they did what the people in Berea did. They'd go home one night and they'd search all week long. They'd search the scripture, you see. She was going to prove me wrong. But as time went along, Not only did she prove me right, she proved her wrong, you see, and she come to the notion. And it wasn't my great teacher. They got in the book, you see, and they studied it out for themselves. And so that's what the people in Berea did. They studied. Those scoundrels in Thessalonica heard the Paul name and went down there and people were believing down there. They come down and stirred up trouble there. And so they snuck Paul out of town to keep him from getting beat up or killed or whatever, and they conducted him on to Athens, and Paul sent word by them that brought him down there, go back and tell Silas and Timothy to come on as quickly as they can, and the Bible says this, that when Paul seen how they worshiped idols, that his spirit was stirred in him. I mean, I can just imagine Paul, now I read somewhere where they said, that on just about every corner in the city there, there was some kind of an idol to set up or some kind of a plaque to an idol god. And I can imagine Paul walking down the street and he comes to a corner and there sits an idol and some name of some god, you know, and then he goes down to the next corner and there's another one. And the Bible said that he's spirit was stirred within him, you see, and he began to go to the marketplace and began to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he began to preach Jesus, you see. He was stirred up about all this false doctrine that these people were believing, and finally, The Bible says that they said, hey, we want to see what this babbler has to say. And so they invited him up to the Ergopolis, which was a place where the Supreme Court, if you will, met. And they said, okay, tell us about this. And Paul said, I perceive you're much too superstitious. You're worshiping all these gods, but he said, I saw where you had a plaque to the unknown God. He said, here's a God you're worshiping. You don't know a thing in the world about him. And he said, I'm going to tell you about him. And so he used that opportunity to preach to them about Jesus Christ. And the Bible said there were people that believed it, you see. And they resorted to Paul. Others kind of said, I don't know whether to believe that or not. We want to hear more, though, from you. Come back and preach to us tomorrow or next week or whatever. And then there were some that just totally rejected it. There's always going to be some rejected. There's always going to be some that'll believe it, and then there's going to be the ones in between that kind of scratch their head and say, well, I don't know, you see. But the thing of it is, when they say, I don't know and don't believe, they're actually not believing, you see. But you see, Paul was stirred, and sometimes you see trouble. will stir us up. For example, Elijah. Remember when he saw the sin of the northern kingdom of Israel, the Bible said that he prayed that it would not rain. James said that. Elijah is a man subject to like passion as we are, and he prayed that it would not rain, and it rained not for a period, three years and six months, you see. And so he goes down to the King Ahab's palace. He requests a meeting with the king. They allow him to come in. He comes in, and he says, it's not going to rain until I say so. He turns and leaves, and he gets outside the palace, and the spear lord says to him, you will have to hide. They don't believe you right now. They think you're some old hillbilly nut, you see. They think you're a wacko. But after several weeks of no rain, they're going to be looking for you. And so they told him where to go, you see. He was stirred, you see. Sometimes trouble will stir us, and if it stirs us, we use it the right way, my friends, and causes us to get closer to God and seek after Him, you see, then it's a good thing. Paul, for example, he wrote four or five letters, I forget now which, when he was in prison, you see. And God used that to have him to write some of the important epistles that we have in the New Testament, you see. And so sometimes trouble can be used, you see, it energizes it. It stirs us towards God to do more for Him, you see. For example, Paul says there, In Philippians, that's one of the books that he wrote while he was in prison. In Philippians 1, verse 12, Paul says, But I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the futherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all of the palace and in all other places. And many the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are more bold to speak the word of God without fear." What Paul was saying here, he was saying, hey, me being arrested and brought to Rome in change, and then put in chains and allowed to have my own house here. He said, God's used that. He said, wow, if I'd have come here as a preacher, I would have never had the opportunity to reach those that are in the palace. But he said, these palace guards that have to watch over me, he said, they change them on a regular basis and I get an opportunity to preach to them. And they go back and Some of them get saved. They go back and tell their friends what happened to them. And so the next guard, when he comes, he's interested in hearing what I have to say. And so Paul was able to preach to many out there in the palace in Rome of Caesar that he had never got the opportunity. And so Paul says, hey, this was in the Featherlands. These things have fallen out to me. for the furtherance of the gospel." And he said, not only that, because I'm still preaching, though I'm in bonds, though I'm not free to move around the city, he said, I'm still preaching. And he said, it's encouraged a lot of the other brethren to be more bold in preaching also, you see. And so God used the trouble that Paul faced not only to energize him, but to energize others as well. And so trouble, my friends, will energize us if we allow it to, to be more bold for God, to step out more for Him, and to work more for Him. And so, first of all, trouble will energize us. Now, Sometimes when we get at ease, we get a little lazy. And Amos warned them about that. In Amos 6, verse 1, he said, Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. In other words, what Amos was saying is, woe to them that are living godless But yet they think, well, we got the temple down there in Jerusalem, there on Mount Zion, and God's not going to let anything happen to it, and so we can continue on. They were at ease, you see. And Amos was warning them, hey, don't let that stop you. And they did. They thought, hey, As long as the temple, God's not going to let that temple be destroyed. But guess what? God said, I've removed my Shekinah glory from it, and it's nothing but a terrible thing in my nostril, and He allowed it to be destroyed, you see. And so, you see, when they were at ease because they thought they could get by with it, God warned them and judgment came. And so, first of all, let me hurry, trouble sometimes energizes us. Secondly, trouble will clarify. You see, trouble gives us vision, gives us insight sometimes into what God's trying to do in our lives. And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there's no temptation taking you, but such is common to man that God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above which you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so you see, What that's simply saying is, nothing comes in our lives but what God don't make a way for us to go through it, you see. And so sometimes trouble will cause us to line up with God. Now let me say, when Janet was sick and getting worse, I probably prayed more then than I ever have in my life. And not only that, I probably got in the Bible maybe more then than any other time. I was looking for comfort. I was looking for hope. I was looking for something, you see, to hold on to. And so, you see, God will do that. God will sometimes use things. Now, like I said, I prayed probably more then than any other time. And I earnestly prayed. I said, God, I want You to heal her. I'm asking You to heal her. I mean, we've been a team for a long time. And we started this out together. We were both saved on the same night many, many years prior to that. And I said, we've been together all this time. We've been like a pair pulling the wagon together, if you will. And she's always been there for me. And I want to keep her. And I'm asking you to touch and heal her. But I always pray this. God, I want your will more than anything. And I'd rather have your will and not have her than to have her and be out of your will, you see. And so, you see, trouble will clarify us. It will cause us to see God's will, you see. And so trouble will teach us things. It will, like I said, cause us to get in the book and study more and look for those. And during those times, you see, I found scriptures that strengthened me and helped me. And, hey, I know I'm like a lot of people. I ask why, you see. And sometimes people say, what's wrong to ask why? No, it's not. Jesus did on the cross. He said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? It's not wrong to ask why. But it's wrong to ask why and then quit. There's where the problem is, you see. But, you see, trouble will clarify us. Trouble will teach us if we'll let him. Not only that, trouble will soften our hearts and trouble will help us appreciate the needs of others. You see, There were times that I was at the hospital with families. I was there when wives lost their husbands, and husbands lost their wives, you see. I was there with them. And I would say to them, I don't know what you're going through, but it must be horrible, and I love you, and I'll be praying for you. I didn't know what they was going through. Now I do, you see. Now I can understand because I've been through it. And so troubles, you see, will tenderize us, will help us to appreciate what others go through when we see them going through. You see, the Bible says to bear you one another's burdens. At the same chapter, it says, bear your own burden. Now, that's not a contradiction. It's simply there's some burdens you can't help me bear. You see, I've got to bear them myself. But there are some burdens you can help me bear, and there are some burdens you have that I can help you bear. And see, trouble will cause us to appreciate those things, and will reach out to people, and will cause us to, you see, want to help them more, and encourage them. And so trouble sometimes will cause us to be clarified, to see. And not only that, trouble will strengthen us, will make us stronger. And just like Joseph, for example, look at all the things that Joseph went through. He was sold as a slave, taken down to Egypt. sold there as a slave to Potiphar. He did what was right and holy, and he always did his job. He worked his way up, if you will. He become the head of the whole household, you see. And Potiphar's wife set her eyes on him. Joseph evidently was a nice-looking young man, sort of like me, I guess. And so she lied on him. He got thrown in prison. And Joseph could easily say, well, it sure does not pay to do right. But he didn't. He continued to do right. And now he learned. how to run a household, you see. But now wait a minute, God has another job for him. And so in order to get there, first, he's got to learn how to run the prison system. And so eventually, you see, the head jailer put Joseph in charge of the entire prison system, if you will. And then finally, You see, after he interpreted the dreams, you know the story, he was brought out of prison, interpreted a dream for Pharaoh, and he was made prime minister of the whole land. What I'm simply saying is, Joseph, when he was brought to Egypt, would have been in no shape to have been prime minister. He had to learn, you see. It toughened him, it made him stronger, and it made him closer to God, made him trust the Lord more, you see, and depend on God more. And so trouble will energize us, will stir us up, and that's a good thing. Sometimes we need stirred up. Not only that, it will clarify us, it will cause us to look for God's way, what God's trying to teach. When I went through that with Janet's passing, I preached a message. Why? W-H-Y. Why? The W stood for, what are you trying to teach me? You see, everything we go through, God's trying to teach us something. And I said, God, I don't want to go through all of this and not learn what you're trying to teach me. What is it you're trying to teach me, you see? And then H was, How do I use this to glorify you? How can I use this whole thing I'm going through to bring you honor, bring you glory? And then the why stood for you. It's all about you. It's not about me. It's all about you. And to glorify you, that's what it's all about, you see. It's all about Jesus. And so, It'll clarify us, it'll cause us, you see, to seek God's will through His Word and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And then, real quickly, tribal magnifies Him. It'll magnify Him. Jesus said over in John 15 and 5, said, I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. You see, we can't do anything without Him. We need Him in everything. And so remember Paul, the very next chapter here, he says, I know a man about 14 years ago within the body or out of the body, I don't know. He said, but such a woman was caught up into the third heaven and said he saw things that was not lawful. for a man to utter, and God sent him back down here to this earth, but he said, lest I should be exalted above measure because of all the manifold revelations that God You just imagine all the things that God showed Paul and the things that God used Paul to give to us the church. I mean, in the Old Testament, you don't see the church. It's nowhere mentioned, you see. There's an indication there that God's got other sheep that he's going to bring into the fold, but he had no idea what he was talking about, you see. And so God used Paul to show that, hey, God's got a church where Jew and Gentile, male and female, bond and free, are all alike. There's no difference, you see. And God used him in a tremendous way. But now wait a minute. When Paul got saved on the road to Damascus, remember, the Bible says, I'm going to show him what great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And you think of all that Paul... I just read some of these things. Five times he said, Receive thy forty stripes, save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A day and a night have you been in the deep. So he was one of those shipwrecks. The Bible only records one. that I'm aware of, but evidently one of those other two, he spent a day and a whole night floating around an ocean somewhere, or in the sea somewhere, you see, before he was rescued. And so Paul went through all this, you see. He talks about all the pearls in the wilderness and in the desert, and he said, among my brethren, among strangers, and all this that he went through. He suffered a lot of things, you see. But Paul, my friends, God used him in a tremendous way. And you think about how God was magnified and glorified through the life of Paul. I mean, You look back, if a preacher preaches out of the New Testament, he's got to preach some of the epistles of Paul because he wrote a good part of it, you see. And so you think how God used him in a tremendous way. And he says there in 2 Corinthians 12, he said, For this thing I besought the Lord thrice. He had that thorn. And now we don't know what the thorn was. He don't tell us. There's a lot of speculation, but that's all it is. You can speculate any way you want to. He said, For this thing I sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Whose weakness? Ours. And so Paul said, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasures in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. And so you see, Paul, God says, no Paul, I'm not going to remove that thorn, but I'll give you grace sufficient. And when that grace come along, you see, when God gave him that grace in his life, Paul said, hey, I'll just go ahead and keep the thorn, but I get to keep that grace too, you see. It was so wonderful, Paul said, I'm willing to bear the thorn. And then Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 13, I'm closing. But rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding glory. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God rested on you. On their part He is evil spoken of, in your part, He's glorified. And so you see, trouble magnifies Him. When trouble comes and our burdens get so heavy we don't think we can bear it, and it causes us to fall on our knees, that's when we're in the best shape to find out what God wants to do in our lives, you see. And then, when the world sees how God's using us, and how in spite of the trouble, in spite of the burden that we bear, you see, in spite of the sorrow that we have, that we still, just like Paul and Silas, when they were in prison that night, and it was midnight, I mean, it was in the inner maximum security cell, if you will, which typically was a hole dug in the ground in the middle of the prison, you see, and so it wouldn't get any darker than what it was there. A horrible place, but guess what? Instead of griping, complaining, and bellyaching, they begin to pray and sing praises to God. And all the prisoners heard him, you see. And guess what happened? The jailer got saved. Not only that, his whole family got saved, you see. And they were baptized. And so, you see, trouble will energize us, will clarify us, and will magnify Him. And so when trouble comes, don't look for it, don't manufacture it. Sometimes people do by foolish things and through sin will manufacture trouble, but don't do it. Stay away from it the best you can, and don't run headlong onto it, but learn as much as you can from any of the trouble that God allows to come in your life, because He's teaching us something. It's not easy, but you'll come out better when you understand. Heavenly Father, We thank you, Lord, for the privilege of prayer. Thank you for being able to come this way tonight. And Lord, we pray that something in this message will be a help, a comfort, a consolation to someone. May you use it for your glory and honor. May it magnify thee, Lord, we pray. Go with us now. Bless this church. Supply the needs, we pray, in each life. Lord, and get the glory and honor that you well deserve. These things we ask in Christ's precious name. Amen.