Its All In How You Look At It

Have you noticed that gas prices are kind of high? You know? Or you have. You've noticed that. I thought probably you had. Well, let me help you put that in perspective this morning. It helps a little bit if you put gas prices in perspective. And I'm not talking about what they cost in other countries, like Japan, where it's at least twice as much as what we pay here. Not really talking about that. I want you to think this morning of what other liquids would be if we bought them by the gallon. For instance, if you bought your snapple by the gallon, it would cost you $10 a gallon. If you bought your Evion spring water by the gallon, it would cost you $21 to drink your natural spring water. Look, mouthwash is $48 a gallon. And pepda bismol is $123 a gallon. Now I understand that most of you here this morning don't go through pepda bismol as fast as your car goes through a tank of gas. Maybe a few of you, but not many of you would do that. So it helps to put gas prices in perspective with what we're paying for everything else, right? That didn't work. It didn't help. Okay. Well, I want to talk to you this morning about something that will help as far as perspective is concerned. As far as putting things into perspective, being able to see how things really are, it's all in how you look at it when it comes to stress and burnout. We're talking about stress and burnout on Sunday mornings. And I'm convinced particularly when it comes to adversity and trials, it's all in how you look at it. It really is. Your perspective will determine how well you come through the difficult times of life. So we're talking this morning about the fourth key to coping with stress, the fourth principle for coping with stress. Principle number one, God's enablement. Principle number two was love in relationships. Love God, love others. And key on that. Number three, we saw last week was priorities, getting a priority system in line for how we view life. But I want to talk this morning about adversity and trial and heartache and how perspective can help you deal with the stress that typically comes with those kinds of things in life. There is nothing as stressful as adversity. Really, there isn't. There is nothing as stressful as adversity. Being suffering, heartache, hardship, sometimes just drains everything out of you. Just wears you down till you lose heart. And in those times, there is no emotional or spiritual or physical energy left. You just want to give up. You want to quit. You think I can't go another day. I do not have the strength to put into life anymore or what's required of me for this day. There is no fight left. And it is at that point that stress has got the better of you and you are at the point. You are at the brink. You are at the door of burnout. It's interesting that Paul speaks of an experience like that in his own life and he tells us about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. So I invite your attention to the 4th chapter of 2 Corinthians where Paul talks about a time in his life when he was under such incredible hardship and stress and suffering and pain that the stress was almost more than he could bear. In fact, it was more than he could bear. But amazingly, Paul tells us in this passage how he learned not to lose heart in life's adversities. If you have your Bible open to 2 Corinthians 4, just glance at verse 1. He says, therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart and then skip down to verse 16. Therefore, we do not lose heart twice in this chapter. Paul says, we do not lose heart. So that kind of gives you a clue. That's really what he's talking about in this chapter. That's really the theme of this chapter. We do not lose heart. One thing I was taught in Bible college is that whenever you see the word therefore, you got to go back to see what it's there for. When he says, therefore, we do not lose heart. He's talking about a lot of things he's talked about before. This is the reason why we do not lose heart. In adversity, in trial, we do not lose heart because of the things he's talked about in this chapter. There are things we're going to look at today. And I think the key, if I were to sum it up in one phrase, in one sentence, the key is it's all in how you look at it. Now please, don't misunderstand that simple expression. When we're talking about life's heartaches and trials and difficulties, I am not saying this morning that you just bury your head in the sand and try to pretend that the heartaches aren't real. I'm not saying this morning that you just play mind games so that you convince yourself that you're not really suffering. Charles Schultz, the originator of the peanuts cartoon strip used to say, don't be afraid that the world is going to end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. Well, I'm not talking about playing this kind of mind games to try to convince yourself that suffering is not really real. I'm not saying just go into denial and deny that the heartache, the pain is not there because it is there what I'm talking about this morning is perspective. I'm talking about having your eyes wide open, admitting, knowing, acknowledging the pain and the difficulty you're going through, being very aware of hardship and yet seeing through it and seeing beyond it to a perspective that only God can give you. That's what I'm talking about this morning. I'm talking about perspective. I'm talking about it's all in how you look at it. It's all in how you view hardship and suffering and difficulty. John Wooden, who was for many years the well-known coach of the UCLA Bruins basketball team, went 10 national championships in the 60s and 70s used to say about people and about life in general and he still speaks to groups all over the country. He says this, things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out. And that is true. It's all in how you look at it. It's all in perspective. Things turn out best for those who look at the way things turn out and take it the best way they can. It's all in perspective. It's all in how you look at it. So I want us this morning to look at what Paul saw. What was his perspective on such incredible trials that in any other setting he would have been at the end of his rope? What was his perspective that helped him to say, we do not lose heart. We don't give up. We don't quit. What was his perspective? What did he see? Three things he tells us in this passage that he saw. First of all, in verses 7 through 12, Paul chose to focus on God's strength rather than our weakness. And if we are going to make it through difficulty, hardship, trial, heartache, and pain, and suffering, we have to focus. Remember, it's all in how you look at it. We have to focus on God's strength rather than our weakness. Now if you look at verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 4, you'll find that Paul begins by talking about the reality of this strength. This strength is very real. It is available. The reality of it's described in verse 7. He says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. Now he says, this treasure. We have this treasure. What's he talking about there? He's talking about the gift of the ministry that had been given to him and carrying out and fulfilling his ministry. He's been talking about that ever since chapter 3. He's talking about the ministry, the New Testament ministry, the gospel. So that's the treasure he's been talking about that we are entrusted with. And he says, we have this treasure. An interesting expression, he says, in jars of clay, literally clay pots. This wonderful treasure, this God-given treasure of the gospel is deposited in clay pots. You know what he's talking about there? He's talking about us. He's talking about all of our human weakness and frailty. He's talking about the fact that we have a tendency to break down sometimes. We're not very shiny and spotless at times. We've got to rough around the edges at times. We're just clay pots. We're jars of clay, emphasizing our weakness. Now in Bible times, it was customary. Sometimes some people did this to take something special you might have, something very precious to you, something of great value. And the way you would store that so as to hide it would be to put it in a clay pot, like we would think of a flower pot or something like that. Because it was unattractive, it did not draw attention to itself and there may be a number of clay pots around the house. That would be a good way to hide something valuable, to store it, to treasure it. Paul is saying, we have this treasure, the ministry of the gospel, in clay pots. God has entrusted it to us in all of our human weakness and frailty. God has given us this ministry the ability to carry out his work in weak human vessels that tend to break down. And notice the next words in verse 7. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show. That's a purpose statement. It could be translated in order to show the very reason why God has said, I'm going to take this glorious ministry of the gospel and I'm going to entrust it to clay pots. The reason why he has done that is to show his strength in the midst of our weakness. And that's going to become the whole theme of this passage. That God's strength is best seen in our weakness. And so the whole purpose here is in order to show, and notice what he says next, this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. That means if anything happens, God gets the glory. Why? Because if anything happens with a clay pot, when it's entrusted with the gospel, then you know God's got to be doing something. It can't be the weak and frail clay pot. It's got to be God doing something. And so the whole purpose of God entrusting his riches to weak frailed human beings is so that he gets the glory so that when people see what's happening, they look around and say, it's got to be a God thing. This can't be something that's happening because of the clay pot, because the clay pot is frailed and weak in itself. Now translate that into the everyday sufferings of life. God has entrusted his life to us. People who are weak, emotionally, physically, spiritually, every way you can think of. People who are at times frail, people who are on the verge of breaking. Just clay pots is all we are. He has entrusted his life to us so that whatever happens in life, his glory can be seen. His strength, and notice the Bible says, it's all surpassing power. I mean, this is the kind of strength that is greater than any need our weakness creates. Whatever weakness, whatever difficulty or trial or struggle you go through, God's strength is equal to the task. God's strength is there to help you through that. The very purpose of our weakness is to give an opportunity to display God's strength. The reality of his strength, it's there, it's real. It is possible for us to drop on God's strength. Paul goes on to talk about the expression of his strength in verses 8 and 9. Notice he gives four contrasts. This is how God's strength is expressed in our lives in very real terms. Verse 8, the first contrast. He says, we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed. These are wonderful contrasts. Paul says, we are under a lot of pressure. You ever feel that way? Sure you do. We're under a lot of stress, we're under a lot of pressure. But we are not crushed. In other words, we do not give up. We never quit. We never surrender. Case in point, Acts 16. Paul and Silas preaching in Philippi, they get arrested and they get beaten. They get beaten in fact with 39 stripes if you saw the movie, The Passion and the beating of Jesus across his back with the cat of nine tails. That's very similar to what happened to Paul. And Silas in Acts 16. They may not have been quite as brutal but take a little bit of the brutalness out. It's still pretty bad. And so they are beaten probably within an inch of their lives and they are dragged and thrown into a Roman prison. Paul is hard pressed but he is not crushed. Because what does he do when he gets in that prison? He starts singing and praying. Singing praises to God so much so that the jailer takes notice and God uses that to lead the jailer to Jesus Christ later that night. Yes Paul was hard pressed but he was not absolutely crushed. Notice the next contrast. He says we are perplexed in verse 8. Perplexed but not in despair. You ever feel perplexed? Sure you do. You ever feel like there's sometimes you just don't know what to do. You don't know where to turn. You don't know how to get out of the situation. You don't even know how this situation happened. And so you are perplexed but Paul said we are not in despair. We have not lost hope. So you can be perplexed about something but not lose hope. Not despair. Not give up. And then notice the next one, verse 9. Persecuted but not abandoned. Paul said there are times when everybody seems like they are against me and I have been persecuted. Literally Paul says. But I have never been abandoned. There's no matter if anybody is against me or everybody is against me, God is still for me. I have never been abandoned by the Lord. So no matter who turns against me, the Lord is always there. You see, that's his strength in place of our weakness. That's how it works. And then notice the last contrast there in verse 9. Struck down but not destroyed. What wonderful word pictures here. Struck down. I think of a boxer who has been knocked to the mat but he does not go down for the count. He gets back up and he keeps fighting and that's what Paul is saying. He was struck down. He was on the mat but he was not out for the count. The Lord gave him the strength to keep getting up. Now these contrasts, this expression of God's strength in the midst of weakness is only possible when you call on God to express his strength through your weakness and in the time of your weakness. You see, what we sometimes focus on is being crushed or in despair or being abandoned or being destroyed and we don't have to go that far. Even if we are hard pressed and perplexed and persecuted and struck down, we can call upon God's strength in that time, in our weakness and it will be expressed just like it was with Paul. The only way that can happen is if we call upon his strength. Winston Churchill, a great leader of England in World War II, used to say this. He used to say there is nothing quite as exhilarating as being shot at without result. I guess there isn't. The bad part is they're shooting at us and then the good part is they missed. There's nothing quite as exhilarating as being shot at without result. That is exactly what Paul say. Paul saying they can beat me down but I'm going to get back up and God's strength. I may be perplexed and not be understanding what's going on but I'm never in despair. I may be persecuted but I'm never abandoned by God. They shot but they missed because of God's strength in my life and when you call upon his strength and his power it is there. It is expressed in our weakness. But Paul talks about the result of that and verses 10 through 12, the result of his strength. Notice what the result of all of this is when we call upon his strength and the time of our weakness, the result is this. Verse 10, we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus. So that, here's the result. So that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us but life is at work in you. Now here's what Paul's saying. The way I view these sufferings Paul said is that we are being given the opportunity to somehow, to some degree, enter into the sufferings of Christ. That's what he's talking about in the first part of verse 10, first part of verse 11. Entering into the sufferings of Christ we die like Christ died if you will. Every day the sufferings we have are an opportunity for us to enter in to some sense and some degree to his physical sufferings. But the result of that is that we might also have the life of Christ that is demonstrated through us. It's kind of like when you crush a rose or some other fragrant flower, when you crush it the fragrance is released and it just fills the room. And Paul is saying when I'm crushed, when I'm beaten down, when I'm persecuted, when I'm perplexed, it's like I'm entering into the sufferings of Christ. It's like I'm being pressed down but because Christ is in me it just releases his life. It releases his strength. It releases his power. And the result of that in verse 12 is that life is at work in you. In other words, through our suffering God brings good to other people. God enables us to relate to others who are suffering, to help others who are suffering, to encourage others who are suffering, even to be an instrument of life to them so that people ask, how can you respond with that kind of strength and we point them to Jesus Christ? Death is it working us? Life is it working you. So you see the result of this strength that we can have when we call up on the Lord to exhibit his strength in our weakness. The result of all of that is that people may come to life, life in Christ even through the testimony that we give in times of suffering. So Paul says if you're under stress right now, if you're under suffering it's difficult in hardship, learn to focus, please focus on God's strength rather than your weakness. But that was not the only key for Paul in times of suffering. The second key was this. Focus on faith rather than doubt. In verses 13 to 15 Paul talks about what that means. Verse 13 he begins by speaking of the conviction of faith. Notice the words, the convicting words, the words of absolute boldness and conviction here. Verse 13, it is written, I believed therefore I have spoken with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak. In the first part of the verse Paul is quoting from Psalm 116. What you need to do sometime, we won't take the time to do it now, sometime you need to go back and read Psalm 116. I did that again this week and I was refreshed by the context that Paul is drawing from here. In Psalm 116 the whole idea was I called upon the Lord, I believed therefore have I spoken. The Psalmist was calling upon God for help in a time of suffering in a time when enemies were trying to take his life. And the Psalmist said, I believed therefore have I spoken to the very next verse, talks about calling upon God to help him. So the speaking here is not a public testimony to other people, it's not preaching, it's not teaching anybody. The speaking that's being talked here about is calling upon God. I believed therefore I spoke. I called on God. But I prayed, I asked him to help me. In a time of suffering, the confidence, the conviction that we need to have is that we can call out to God in faith and he will be there to give us his strength in times of difficulty in suffering. That conviction, that I believe I trust him, I know he's there. Therefore I speak, therefore I call upon him. I pray, I ask him for help. Do you have that conviction this morning? Do you have the conviction that God is real, that he is there to help you, that he will answer when you call upon him? He promises he will do that. That's the conviction that Paul had. A little boy by the name of Steve grew up in West Texas and he was telling his pastor about his experience as a young child. He grew up in Tornado, Alley, where in the springtime and summertime, Tornados have a tendency to sweep through that part of the country and up into Oklahoma, Kansas and across the Midwest. And he said he remembered an occasion when he was about three or four years old when sure enough there was a tornado coming across the Prairie and his father gathered all the five boys in their mama and got them as close to the center of the house as he could and he covered them up with a mattress so that they would be protected from any flying debris if the tornado should hit the house. And then the father went over next to a window to kind of look out and see if it was coming or how close or what track it was taking. They didn't have quite the warning systems that we do today and so he was kind of watching to see what was happening. And this little boy named Steve says he distinctly remembers peaking out from under the mattress and looking at his dad looking out the window and thinking, I want to be with my dad. So he wiggled away from the grasp of his mom, crawled out from under the mattress and ran over to his dad and took his dad by the legs and he says I distinctly remember thinking the best place to be in a storm is next to my dad. And my friend the best place to be in a storm of life is next to your heavenly father. Clinging onto him with all your might by his strength calling out to him. I believe therefore I have spoken the conviction that he is there. I can call on him. I can draw from his strength. It's the best place to be in a time of difficulty. That's the conviction of faith but Paul goes on to talk about the confidence of faith that that conviction gives us in verses 14 and 15. Notice verse 14, because we know there's the conviction. He's got the confidence now because of the conviction that God is there we can call on him. Now these words of confidence we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us up with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. You know what kind of confidence Paul has there? He has confidence in ultimate victory. What Paul is saying is it doesn't matter what happens to us here. Whatever does happen to us here. We have the confidence that ultimately we win because Jesus has already won. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead we have the confidence that we too will be raised from the dead and we will be presented with you in heaven. That confidence is there. So no matter what happens to you here, a believer never loses. We always win. That's what Paul's talking about. We have the confidence that we will be with Christ someday. No matter what happens here, no matter how bad the suffering, the heartache, the sorrow gets, we know that there is a greater homecoming someday when we will all be present together with Jesus Christ. If you know Him as your Savior, you have that confidence of ultimate victory. We need a great time every year when we gather for homecoming and we gather together, we fellowship together, we enjoy picnic together and eat together and hope you can stay for that. It's a wonderful time. But it's just a small, minuscule foretaste of what it's going to be like someday when we get together in heaven. That's what Paul's talking about here. Because we have the confidence that Jesus has been resurrected. We also have the confidence that we know there is life after death. We will be resurrected. We don't lose when we die. We just go to heaven and we get to await that wonderful homecoming when everybody else who knows Christ joins us there. That's the confidence of faith. But there's also the confidence of greater glory in verse 15. All this is for your benefit, Paul says, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. He says all of this, this suffering, this calling up to God in times of suffering and faith, trusting His strength, having faith rather than doubt, all of this is for you, for your benefit. Because He says this grace that's giving me the strength to stand is reaching more and more people. This is like Romans 8, 28, that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him. In other words, even our suffering may be used of God to reach out to more people so that more people can hear the testimony of the grace of God and of the death of Christ. And as more and more are reached, as Paul says there in verse 15, reaching more and more people. You know what that results in? That results in thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. There is more glory to God in heaven because people are reached through the testimony of saints who suffer in God's strength rather than their own weakness. You see how all this works? Whenever we do avail ourselves of the power that God gives us, the strength that He makes available to us to trust Him rather than doubt, then it has a tremendous ripple effect to other people and may even lead to those people being saved. Faith rather than doubt. But for that to happen, we must focus on faith. I believed, therefore I called out to God. I've spoken, cried out to Him. Do you believe that He is there? Do you believe He will reach down to help you in times of suffering? If you don't believe that, my friend, all you're going to experience is incredible stress in the heartaches of life. But if you believe that you can run to the arms of your father, wrap your arms around his leg and be near him in a time of a storm, if you believe that, then you can call out to him and you will find him to be there to help you. One other focus that Paul said he had, in times of suffering, in times of incredible stress caused by physical pain, difficulty in suffering, Paul said, I chose to focus on the eternal rather than the temporary, verses 16 to 18. This is a focus he chose to have, focus on the eternal rather than the temporary. Look at the contrast between those two in verses 16 and 17. Again, we're set up with a series of contrasts here. Verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart because of what He's just said. We can trust God's strength rather than our weakness because we can have faith rather than doubt because of that we don't lose heart. Then He goes on to say, though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Now let's just take another look at those two verses and I want you to see five amazing contrasts. Just want to point them out briefly mention them. Five amazing contrasts in those two verses. In verse 16 Paul talks about the outward as opposed to the inward. What he's talking about there is the outward man as opposed to the inward man. See if you have a focus on temporary things, on things here, on things on this earth you're focusing on the outward man. What's happening to you physically? What's happening on the outside? If you have a focus on eternal things you're focused on what's happening to the inner person inwardly. So that's the first contrast. Second contrast is between wasting away and being renewed. You see it there in verse 16? The outward man is wasting away. That's true for all of us. From the moment you are born. You are on an inevitable march toward the grave. I know that sounds very depressing but that's not a gloomy outlook on life. It's realistic. From the moment we are conceived in fact we begin that process of decay. Obviously there are a few years where things get put together and build up but then we cross the hill. Whenever that is. I'm beginning to think that's a hill that's still a long way away. It gets further away all the time. Behind me. But the outward man is wasting away. The inward man is being renewed. If you focus on eternal things you're not worried about the wasting away. You're worried about am I being renewed inwardly through this? I may be getting physically older and weaker but I'm getting spiritually stronger as the years go by. Is that right? Is that true for you? I hope it is. Based on eternal things it can be. The third contrast is between troubles and glory. See it there in verse 16, verse 17. He talks about light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory. If you focus on the present all you're going to focus on is your troubles. If you focus on the eternal you'll focus on the glory that can come to God through a life that is well lived even in the midst of the troubles. The fourth contrast is between light, the word light and the words far out ways. You see our troubles are light. The glory that will have an eternity far out ways the light troubles that we have. You say, wait a second, John. Light troubles aren't so light. If you only knew how heavy they are. Wait a second. Yes, they can seem very heavy if all we're focused on is the present, the temporary. If we're focused on the eternal the glory that awaits us there is far heavier than any trouble we have here. And you know why? Because of the fifth contrast. Because of the contrast between momentary and eternal. That's why. Any difficulty you go through in this life is only momentary. The glory that we will share with Christ in heaven is eternal. We'll never end. Whenever you give blood or whenever you go into the hospital and they're going to take blood, the nurse when she's ready to poke you will always say, not just a brief stick, something like that. Just a brief stick and they stick you. What they're trying to do is to set you up for the fact that you're going to experience a little bit of pain, but it's only light, it's momentary, it'll pass quickly and then we'll go on with the procedure. And after all this is over, you're going to feel a lot better, right? Because the prick is only light, it's only momentary, it's only brief. And the good you're going to get out of this will last you maybe the rest of your lifetime. It's exactly what Paul's saying. Any trouble we go through here is only light and momentary compared to the glory, compared to the glory that we will share eternally with Jesus Christ. But you can't understand that unless you have that focus. It's all in how you look at it. If you choose to focus on the temporary, you're going to be consumed with all the troubles and the wasting away and the difficulty. If you are focused on eternity, if you are focused on what lies ahead, then you will be able to through those troubles be able to see the glory that far outweighs them all. Contrast between those two, eternal and temporary. And then Paul says there's got to be a choice between the two. Verse 18. So again, because of this, we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. We fix our eyes. Paul says we choose to focus on that which is eternal, not on that which is temporary. The word translated fix our eyes, the very interesting word, in the original language that Paul used, it was the word scope us. We get our English word scope from that word. You know, like a telescope or maybe even better in this imagery is a scope on a rifle. Those of you who hunt, you know what a scope does. A scope allows you to focus on the target. Just imagine yourself for a moment in Colorado, high up on a ridge, and you see several hundred yards down below you, a bull elk, and you want that elk. You've got him within range. And what do you do? You raise your rifle to your shoulder. You focus on him through the scope. Now there are lots of other things going on around you. There are birds chattering, the breeze is blowing through the trees, the sun is filtering down into the valley. The brook may be, you know, babbling beside you. There are lots of other things going on, but you don't hear any of that. You don't see any of that. You are focused on that elk. And that focus on your rifle helps you to draw a bead on him and focus on him. That's exactly what Paul is saying here. We scope out what's eternal rather than what's temporary. We focus on all the other stuff going on around us, the trial, the heartache, the difficulty, the pain, the suffering. That's not in our focus because our focus is on what's eternal and not what is temporary. So we choose to focus on the eternal rather than the temporary. That's what Paul is saying. We choose to look through and beyond our circumstances to those things that will last forever. It's like the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 12 when in the middle of verse 1, he says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that's easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. And I love this next part. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. That's the scope. That's the focus. We fix our eyes on Jesus. He's the one we're looking to. The author and perfector of our faith. And he did the same thing. Who for the joy set before him? His focus on that endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You know how Jesus made it through the cross? Humanly speaking because he had every sense of pain that we have, every sense of suffering that we have. You know how Jesus made it through that? His focus was on eternal things, not temporary things, not on the pain and the suffering. He was focused on what would happen because of his death. Seeing all of us worshipping here at John St. Chapel one day and in many other places in this world today and someday all together in heaven, seeing that, focusing on that is what caused Jesus to scorn the shame, to say that's not worth thinking about because I'm focused on something bigger and it's eternal. And that's where our focus has to be. If we're going to make it through suffering, if we're going to make it through heartache, we have to be able to see through the temporary to the eternal. Several years ago, 1988, some of you will remember this. You will remember seeing it on your newscast every evening. The terrible fires that raged through Yellowstone National Park, our first national park, a drought had caused their conditions to be just right so that in the month of May, there were lightning strikes that started fires all over the park and they seemed to begin to converge and other major fires started in June on two ends of the park and everything just seemed to be out of control. By July 27, the interior secretary, Don Hodel, decided a massive effort was needed. And so they sent thousands of firefighters, 127 aircraft, 120 million dollars to fight the fires in Yellowstone, but they lost. They could not turn the tide. It was not until the first snowfall on September 10th in the higher elevations of Yellowstone that the fires began to go out. And everybody, remember this? Everybody mourned the loss of our greatest national park. It was terrible. 10 years later, by 1998, nobody was singing that same tune. Eccologists, biologists, everybody was singing a totally different tune. They said, you know what has happened? In fact, the director of resources for Yellowstone National Park said there is no ecological downturn in what happened 10 years ago. He said the result has been great. There were some fires that were so hot, they scorched the earth, but a lot of fires left a rich deposit of ashes which increased and benefited the soil. And then there's the lodge pole pine, which is the main tree in Yellowstone, which in cases it seeds in a cone that is covered with wax. Those seeds are only released under intense pressure and heat. And usually there are a few fires throughout the west in the summer that will release enough of them to keep the forest rejuvenated. But he said, what happened in that big fire is that all the undergrowth and brush got burned out and all these new seeds got released. We have a whole new forest of lodge pole pines growing up here. This is a wonderful thing that's happened. And what everybody thought was a terrible disaster turned out to be one of the best things that could ever happen to Yellowstone National Park. You see it's all in how you look at it. Because my friend, God will use the heat of hardship. God will use the agony of adversity. God will use the pressure of pain to bring you to a new sense of vitality in life like you've never experienced before. But you will miss that. You will never see it if you lose your perspective. All you will feel in the difficulties of life is incredible stress, pressing in on you. And you will miss what God wants to do if you choose to focus on the wrong things. Paul said, in the incredible sufferings I've been through, I've learned God has taught me. I have to focus on his strength rather than my weakness. I have to focus on faith. I know I can call on him. He's there rather than doubt. And I have to focus on the eternal rather than the temporary. If we don't do that, my friend, we lose our way. We lose. We lose the lessons God wants to teach us in times of difficulty. But if we keep our focus, keep our perspective, we learn, we understand what God has for us. Would you bow with me in prayer? Father, I thank you that even in times of great stress and difficulty, physical pain and suffering, you have something in mind. You're doing good work in us. Lord, so often we're overcome with the stress of adversity that we do not allow you to do what you want to do. Oh, God, help us to change our perspective, our focus like Paul did, and help us to see that even in the greatest difficulties of life, you can work as we depend on your strength, trust you rather than doubt, and look on eternity rather than the temporary things. Help us to see you can do great things in us and through us for your glory. And that's what we want. Lord, we know that someday when we are in your presence, you're not going to ask us how much it hurt, you're going to ask us, did you use that to glorify me? Did anyone see me in your time of suffering? Lord, help us to keep that in mind. In Jesus' name we pray.