Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Everyone goes through trials and tribulations. But do you have the faith to believe that what you have gone through is actually going to strengthen you for something greater in the future? Let's talk about it.
[00:00:21] God doesn't design us to fit. He designs us to be impactful.
[00:00:28] Hey, this is Ryan. Welcome to Shifts and Ladders. Excited and delighted to be with you today.
[00:00:35] We are. As we're going through at the time you're listening to this, we have entered into what we call Holy Week in the Christian faith. And it began on Sunday, Palm Sunday, where Jesus is entered into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. That's a long story in itself. If you want to read it, you can find it in the Bible in the chapter or Luke. I'll say Luke 19, something like that. Luke 19.
[00:01:10] But beginning on Thursday or Friday, when you actually listen to this, we, Jesus, will be betrayed and will be crucified.
[00:01:22] And we celebrate Easter on Sunday, which represents the resurrection. However, you have to get through Thursday betrayal and Friday crucifixion to get to a resurrection. And most of the time, when we're walking through our lives and as we're going through all of the things that life deals us, we have a challenge of acknowledging that perhaps what we're going through might actually have a purpose. And while life is lifing, that doesn't count the challenges that grief brings. It doesn't bring some of the coincidental fights, breakups, deaths, all the things that the world just inundates us through the news of all the challenges that people are experiencing.
[00:02:17] But I believe that God finds a way to turn our beauty, our ashes into beauty, or Bible says he would give us beauty for ashes, that he will turn our mourning into dancing, that he will do something that will change our perspective of what we're actually going through.
[00:02:38] And I was trying to think about as we're, you know, preparing for this week, and that sometimes it doesn't make sense until we actually go to the end. And every painful situation has meaning in reverse after we've gone through it.
[00:03:00] The resurrection has no meaning. If you hadn't gone through the pain and betrayal.
[00:03:06] It literally does not mean God hadn't been there the whole time.
[00:03:11] It's just that you hadn't experienced the triumph that comes because you went to the lowest of the low in order to experience it. So I'm going to use a scripture that I think helps anchor this perspective that Jesus teaches us. And really, I want to kind of anchor our conversation on the redemption of painful circumstances. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says this, Fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter. Or in some translations it says finisher of our faith. For the joy set before Him. He endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
[00:04:06] Jesus, let me, let me kind of set the stage here how powerful Jesus redemption, resurrection is and what he redeemed along the way during his crucifixion, namely he died for our sins, meaning any of the things that have permeated our, our world.
[00:04:34] He took it on as the perfect sacrifice. We believe that he died on the cross, brought all of those things that he experienced, and when he died, the power of those sins died with him. So the Bible says that the penalty of sin is death. So not just like a death death that we see naturally, but a, an internal death, a death of spirit.
[00:05:03] And essentially it causes, it's caused by a separation of God way back in the beginning of the book of Genesis. So what God is doing is he's building a bridge back to God. And through Jesus we will be able to find and have relationship with God. Because we believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior of our lives doesn't mean you need to be perfect.
[00:05:32] You have to have faith in order to accept it.
[00:05:35] Accept him and accept the. The accept him and accept the sacrifice that he made on the cross for you.
[00:05:45] The Bible says he died that we might be made whole again. That we might.
[00:05:52] Jesus died on a maybe that God loved us so much.
[00:06:00] John 3:16. God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. What does that mean? God? Jesus made a bridge back to God for us. He loved us that much. But the thing is, we have to choose him every time.
[00:06:21] No one tells you who to love, no one tells you what to like, no one tells you what to wear. Or when you're an adult, no one tells you what to wear. You have to choose God. You have to choose Him. And that's the best expression of love, is when you make the choice to do it without compulsion. You've decided that this is how I'm going to actually live my, my life. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm not going to do. And this is exactly why Jesus said, with the joy set before him, he despised the shame of the cross, meaning he knows the Cross has pain. It is a public display of. Of disgust, of ridicule, of damaging some individual's reputation, all the things that led up to a crucifixion or just straight inhuman. So let me give you a little bit of context on crucifixion so we can really understand how much God can redeem something that's painful. Okay. We wear crosses on our necks these days, right.
[00:07:32] And it represents the Christian faith, right? You may. You may see it some in some places, but you may see it on people's arms. You may see it, you know, people's chest, whatever. Tattoos, right?
[00:07:46] I couldn't even think about it. Tattoos, necklaces, bracelets, whatnot. But the challenge that most people don't understand is the symbol of the cross at one point was a symbol of capital punishment.
[00:08:01] It was something that the Romans would use to literally punish those that they conquered. And it was one of the most inhumane ways of punishment.
[00:08:13] One of the things that they would do is they would whip with cat O9 tails, which had glass and bone at the end of it. And they would whip people, and they would whip them so hard that the bone and the glass would get into the skin, and then it would rip the skin off somebody's back.
[00:08:34] They would put. For Jesus, they put crowns of thorns on him. Or in other places, they would. They would just punch and beat them down to a pulp, and their face would be bloody and to a point where they were literally unrecognizable.
[00:08:50] On top of that, what they would also do is they would not only make them carry their own cross, but they would also beat them along the way. They would spit on them. They would.
[00:09:03] Oh, God.
[00:09:07] It's just. I just get really emotional thinking about it.
[00:09:12] They would shout and yell at individuals who were just bloodthirsty to see somebody suffer.
[00:09:22] They also would wrap.
[00:09:29] Well, in Jesus's case, they nailed his hands to the cross so he couldn't get down, but they would wrap the ropes around people on the cross and just make them hang there.
[00:09:40] This is leading up to the. To them actually dying. By the way, they're not dead yet.
[00:09:46] They would just get so close to not kill them that they'd get on the cross.
[00:09:55] They would break their bones in many cases to make sure that they died sooner.
[00:10:03] So at this point, when people get to the place of cross and this instance calvary, what they would do, the process of crucifixion, is you would get on the cross and all of the fluid from your arms and everything will start to compress your chest.
[00:10:27] So what would happen is people would try to keep themselves up on their, on their feet so they can breathe. So ends up happening is the lungs would actually get more and more compressed and you would not be able to breathe. Now, this is the issue, and the challenge is that the beatings didn't kill you. If the beatings killed you, then the beatings killed you. But the thing that really got you is the exface. The, the, the gosh, the asphyxiation. I may have messed that word up, but you would run out of breath.
[00:11:00] That is where the suffering came. And people would be on the cross for hours.
[00:11:07] And that's why they would have to break their legs, because the, the sooner that they got their hands at, the sooner the fluid would get in their chest and then they would die sooner.
[00:11:19] They'll poke at them, spears still continue to try and kill them. So they would feel the pain, but also die a slow death.
[00:11:30] You know what I'm saying? It's a horrific, horrific way to die.
[00:11:36] But I will say this.
[00:11:38] Jesus takes our pain, redeems it, and gives us something that we did not intend it to be. So if you happen to be suffering during this season, right now, God is telling you, and God is saying to you, I hadn't forgotten you.
[00:12:00] I still see you. I still remember you.
[00:12:04] I hate to see you being in so much pain.
[00:12:09] But this pain is temporary because the triumph is going to be permanent. Come on, somebody. What God has for you, you will not be able to handle if you don't go through this season.
[00:12:24] The weight of what God has for you is going to be so great that you. Only your character, not your skill, not your accolades, not your education can keep it. Your character is the thing that will keep it.
[00:12:44] Most of the time we don't think our challenges are challenging after we've gone through them. We don't remember. I think God does that by design to help us forget painful seasons, but how painful it is. But he helps us remember the lesson from the painful situation.
[00:13:04] And hopefully, just like Jesus, we will be able to be triumphant over those tough seasons, but not forget the lesson out of those tough and challenging times. Jesus was still teaching.
[00:13:22] He has a masterclass on suffering, and he shows it.
[00:13:31] But he got up on Easter Sunday with all power in his hands.
[00:13:37] The keys of death, hell, life. Sorry as death, hell and the grave were in his hands when he got up on Sunday morning.
[00:13:48] And I just really want us to be mindful if you happen to be a believer in Jesus, this is a we do this every year, but particularly this year.
[00:14:03] Look at what you've gone through, look at what you've came through and know that God was with you in every single painful circumstance because he needs us to grow.
[00:14:19] Sometimes if we don't have the pain, we won't.
[00:14:23] But in those painful things, God finds a way of redeeming them and using them because he's the Master of the universe. He is the God of everything. And you know what? No matter what happens, he still has our best interest at heart.
[00:14:44] I'm going to close with this. Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
[00:14:58] I personally sometimes struggle that God, I'm going through painful stuff. How?
[00:15:05] How did you let this happen? Why did you let this happen? And I have to remember that there's joy set before him, before me.
[00:15:16] That God, in His infinite wisdom and his sovereignty, knows that if I don't pass this test and pass this level to get my weight up, I won't be able to handle what weight he will put on when I do. Enter into a new season with new responsibility, new blessings, influence, whatever it may be.
[00:15:39] But please, please, please remember that your pain has purpose and that one season that might represent pain one day will represent triumph in another. All right, keep it locked here. If you were blessed by this, get a, like thumbs up on YouTube. Follow Share this message with somebody because I believe someone's gonna need it, is needing it, will need it, because we all go through stuff like this.
[00:16:11] But Jesus gives us the perspective of focusing on the future while we're going through the pain. It makes it so much easier. Makes it easier, but it makes you tougher to go through it when you have a focus that at the end of this, I'm going to be better. At the end of this, I'm going to be better.
[00:16:36] God knows. I don't know what he doesn't know. I don't know what he knows. I wish he would tell me.
[00:16:44] But it has a meaning and it has a purpose if God allowed does. So anyway, be blessed and we'll catch you in the next one. Peace.
[00:16:59] I messed that up.
