Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Proper Attitude In Adversity
This episode holds the promise of discovering how faith can be a powerful anchor in life's squalls. Through the lens of biblical wisdom, particularly the words of Jesus in John 16:33 and Paul’s steadfastness, we explore the transformative power of maintaining a positive attitude in adversity and the concept of 'shalom'—a profound state of well-being accessible through faith.
Let's get our Bibles out and pick them up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I praise God for Wednesday night. I'm hungry and thirsty for more, more of your word, more of your spirit, more of your presence. Lord, I thank you that this word will feed my faith, it will nourish my spirit, open up to me revelation and let me see the way you see. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:All right, let's turn in our Bibles to John, chapter 16 and verse 33, very familiar verse for most of us. Jesus is speaking to the disciples and he says these things I have spoken unto thee that in me you might have peace In the world. You shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer or be of good courage. I have overcome the world. And you know, I like the amplified version of the last part of that when it says I have overcome the world, I have deprived it of its power to harm you and conquered it for you. And so, uh, tonight I wanted to share a message entitled the proper attitude in adversity, the proper attitude and adversity. You know, just, uh, I guess it was Sunday night I had a message on battle ready victory, minded. This would be a good companion to that. You know, we, we, uh, we expect good things in 2025. Uh, it's a year of milestones. I believe that God's going to stack up some wonderful testimonies for us to share. I believe God is going to do great things. It's going to startle the world and startle the church at his goodness. But right along with that, you know, the devil is going to oppose us.
Speaker 1:Jesus prepared his disciples for some you know, some adversity. He said these things I have spoken unto you. So, really, when you go back and read about these things, what's he talking about? He's talking about what he shared at the last supper chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17,. He had something to say to his disciples on the night before he was crucified, because he knew they were going to go through adversity. And he said I've shared these things that you might have Shalom, health, prosperity and peace.
Speaker 1:He wants you to have shalom. He doesn't want you to have trouble. You're going to have trouble, but you can have shalom in the middle of the trouble. And so the word might there. You have to train yourself, because I say this pretty often, but we have new people sometimes that come haven't heard the meaning of the word might. They think. Might God? Might God might not. No, it's not on God's side. God has provided shalom, but the might is on our side. We must access that shalom by faith, by faith. It's by faith. So he said it's your choice. You can have shalom in the middle of the trouble or you can just have the trouble by itself. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the shalom the middle of the trouble. Or you can just have the trouble by itself. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the shalom.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna, I'm gonna do what I can to increase my faith, I mean ahead of time, even if I need to. I mean, some of us are going through some, some trials and tribulations. Well, that just comes with the territories. Jesus said you're gonna have them. That's all he said. They're, they're a fact, fact of life, all he said they're. They're a fact, fact of life. But he said I've, I've deprived them of their power to harm you. I've conquered them for you. So, in other words, he's given us the way out. Uh, so you know, be of good courage. So you don't, don't, don't melt in the time of trouble. Uh, being in Christ will overcome being in the world. You know that's where we live. We're living in the world, but you know, when we're in Christ, when we see ourselves in Christ, that's the key to overcoming everything the world throws at us. So you know, one common thing that I run across from time to time is, you know people say well, yeah, but some things, you know, god just allows us to go through. You know, like Paul's thorn in the flesh.
Speaker 1:So let's look at Paul's thorn in the flesh tonight in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. Let's get those verses in front of me. I've had to deal with this periodically over the many years of pastoring, and you know we just had our 30th anniversary of a full time here at Glorious Way. But I had eight years before that of being an associate pastor with Brother Osteen. It was a, it was not an official title, it was unofficial, but he saw me as a pastor and used me as a pastor at Lakewood, and so I helped him pastor people. I met with people, I prayed with people. I, you know, stood with people about difficulties. Paul's thorn in the flesh.
Speaker 1:So let's look at it here in verse 6, 2 Corinthians 12. For, though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. But now I forbear lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be or that he heareth of me, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. There was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And so people say, well, god gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble, to keep him, you know, to keep him from getting too lifted up. He was a mighty man of God and he, you know, he had this temptation. And so God gave him a thorn in the flesh. Obviously that sickness Well, number one, it does it's not sickness.
Speaker 1:It says what. It is right there in that verse. It says it's the messenger of Satan to buffet me, and so it's. How could it be sickness when it's the messenger of Satan? And then it says there was given unto me. Well, it begs the question who said God gave it to him? It doesn't say that God gave it to him.
Speaker 1:So you know when you, when you, when you say that, then you're ascribing to God, you're blaming God for the thorn in the flesh and you're saying the thorn is some kind of sickness, some kind of infirmity, some kind of weakness, and that's just not true, you know, I mean rightly dividing the word of truth is so critical and you need to have the proper teaching. Most people that believe that heard it from someone who's teaching some theory they have or they're teaching some religious tradition that they've come out of. And I have to say probably there are literally millions of Christians around the world who believe that that God gave him the thorn in the flesh and the thorn in the flesh and the thorn in the flesh is some kind of sickness. And so really, you know, let's be accurate about the Word of God, let's not ascribe to God things the devil does, and so really, all through the Bible, thorns were people, not sickness, and I've got a couple of verses, num numbers 37. We can turn there. I'm going to let you turn in the Bible a little bit tonight, maybe a little more than normal, and this might something you already know about, but you're going to run across people that believe this and when people believe this and they they don't really have faith to get healed because they're going to the devil is going to say, yeah, well, that's a thorn in the flesh. That's to keep you from being too proud. I'm going to let you have cancer, so you don't get proud. I'm going to give you diabetes, so you don't get lifted up. Oh boy, I'll tell you so.
Speaker 1:Numbers 33, verse 35, no 55, excuse me, now this is this is God talking to Israel? About driving out the Canaanites, all the ites in the land? He said but if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. So you see, that shows you that it's not talking about sickness. It's talking about people. It's talking about the uncovenanted, the Gentiles. The Gentiles that were in the land that God removed. I mean, he gave the land that was inhabited by the Gentiles to Israel and they were told to expel them out of the land, get rid of them, drive them out, because they're going to become pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides.
Speaker 1:All right, here's another verse in Joshua, chapter 23. And so that you can know that this is not a theory. This is Bible facts that I'm sharing with you tonight. The people that try to get you to believe that the thorns in the flesh are sickness. That's a theory, that's an incorrect dividing of the word of truth. Joshua, chapter 23, verse 13,.
Speaker 1:Much the same. Know for a certainty that the Lord, your God, will no more drive out any of these nations from before you, but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good land which the Lord, your God, has given you. Well, why would he do that? Well, because when they disobey the covenant, when they, when they drift away from doing what God told them to do in his covenant, that's curses. You know that we've got a better covenant, found upon better promises, and so, uh, we don't have curses associated with our covenant. But Israel did. When Israel disobeyed God, they, the curses, were enacted. They were automatically enacted, and so the devil then knew he had free reign to come and put on them all the curses that they had in their covenant.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's not about God being worried about Paul being exalted. It's the devil that doesn't want us exalted, you know. We just, we had a rhema word for this year in Psalm 92, 10,. But my God shall exalt my horn like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. God gave me that word, that rhema word for Glorious Way Church for the year of 2025, the year of milestones.
Speaker 1:You know, we've had, you know, promotions. God is not against us being exalted, he's against us exalting ourselves. But God is the one that lifts us up, god is the one that promotes God. You know, promotion cometh not from the south, the east, the west, but God is the judge. He putteth down one and setteth up another. Psalm 75. So God's not against us being exalted, he's against us exalting ourselves. He will use our notoriety, he will use our visibility, he will use our prominence in order to influence for the kingdom sake. And so, you know, you just have to be understand that God's not. God's not nervous about his church being exalted.
Speaker 1:And so, through this, this idea that when people think that God gave the thorn in order to keep someone humble, so you can never overcome adversity that the devil really is bringing you if you're deceived into thinking that God brought it, you see, the whole point I mean the whole point is going to attack your faith. You're not going to be able to believe God to get out of the adversity if you think there's a possibility that he let it happen, or he wants it to happen or he, you know. A lot of times you know people will just say it this way Well, god allowed me and they'll have some positive. You know, I knew a lady one time that that had a really bad car wreck and she, I think she broke her leg. She was in the hospital for an extended period of time and she just argued with the preacher I don't you dare tell me that that Satan put this on me. I God, god, let me have this car wreck because I got my, my roommate, here in the hospital. You know they had two to a room and she got her saved. I know God arranged this whole thing so I could get this lady saved. Well, you know you couldn't tell her different. She believed that, but it wasn't the truth. That was not the truth. That's not what God does. God doesn't abuse one child to save somebody else. I mean that's kind of silly.
Speaker 1:But people believe all kind of crazy things when they're taught wrong. I want to teach you the right thing. I want to teach you why we believe what we believe, so that we can overcome adversity. You know, the proper attitude when we're going through adversity is what we're talking about tonight in this message. So trust and blame are incompatible. I mean you just can't trust god and blame him at the same time. But I've seen it. I've seen people do it. Why? Well, again it's, but usually it's bad teaching, usually it's someone that's just never heard this kind of preaching or teaching, and so they're just kind of deceived into thinking that God is the author of all bad. No, he's not. God is good, the devil is bad. God's got a good plan, the devil's got a bad plan. So we keep that straight and you can always then have faith to overcome adversity, come adversity.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to use these verses tonight that we found here about our proper attitude and adversity, and there's four things that we need to think about. Some of us are battling health issues. Some of us are battling issues in our families, in our careers, our finances I mean there's all kinds and sometimes people have a multi, a multi front war. I mean a multi front problem. I mean they've got a number of things that they're believing God for that. And you know when adversity comes, like in several different areas at one time, you know you've got to have something to sustain you. That's why I want to give you this message. And you know, the fact that God has something good for us plan tells me that the devil's got a plan to subvert that. He's got a plan to stop that. We shouldn't be amazed at what the devil will try to do to get us to quit believing that this is a year of milestone.
Speaker 1:So the first thing, on the proper attitude that we find in John 16, 33, be of good cheer or be of good courage. Be of good courage. You know Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in Lord always. And again I say rejoice. We shared that scripture on Sunday night. If you weren't here, be sure and get the media on Sunday night's message. I believe it'll help you. You know Psalm 104, 34, I will be glad in the Lord. I will be glad. See, that's a choice. We can either be glad or sad or mad, but let's be glad. Let's be glad in the face of adversity.
Speaker 1:You know, I like what one preacher said Life is not about learning to endure the storm, but to dance in the rain. You know, if it's raining, let's dance. I saw a clip of singing in the rain the other night. You know, the guy was singing in the rain. They did it on a set. It looked like it was outdoors in some city. But he's out there and it's pouring down raining. He was getting so wet he just put his umbrella up. He was dancing in the rain, splashing the water around his tap shoes.
Speaker 1:I got to thinking about you know what? Sometimes you've just got to learn to laugh at the devil. You've got to thinking about you know what? Sometimes you've just got to learn to laugh at the devil. You've got to learn to have joy in the midst of trouble.
Speaker 1:Let's look at 2 Corinthians 12 again. Now. There's several pieces here Verse 9, verse 8, for this thing, in other words, this thorn in the flesh, for this thing Paul says I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. In other words, he's praying Lord, take this thorn away, take this trouble away from me, take it away Like God's going to wave a magic wand, take this away. And then what did the Lord say? Verse 9, he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for thee.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the words that we had the prophetic word about this year is it's a year of grace upon grace. You know, some people I've heard grace. You know, when you read the Amplified, it says unmerited favor. Well, that's only part of what grace is. Really, the true part of grace is it's God's ability to do anything. When we access, by faith, this grace that God grants us, it's his ability to get through any difficulty and to keep moving through it until we overcome it. I mean, it's just, you know, it's all you need.
Speaker 1:He said it's not a matter of me taking it away, it's, it's about you using your authority. See, you know Paul had. He didn't know everything at once he had. He had to gain the authority of the believer as a revelation when he went to heaven. He didn't know all about his authority. He didn't know all about what he could do himself, about thorns in the flesh, persecution. Really, he's talking about persecution. You're not going to get rid of persecution, you just have to overcome the persecution To remove persecution.
Speaker 1:A lot of times what I've seen people do is they get persecuted for their stand and they get under pressure, and so then they don't make a stand, they shut their mouth and they quit saying the thing that people object to, and that's not God. When God told me to wake up to church, I couldn't, just because people didn't like it, just because people didn't want to receive it, I had to keep on saying it. I had to keep saying what God told me to do. God told me to wake up the church. They're asleep in their beds with the covers pulled over their heads, and so you know that's not the way to go through adversity just to shut your mouth and quit being controversial. No, you rise up and speak what God said.
Speaker 1:So he said I, uh, he verse last part of verse nine. Then, most gladly, therefore, while I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell on me. So that's how he handled adversity, when people persecuted him, when people lied about him and people betrayed him. I mean about him when people betrayed him. I mean you know what he just gloried. What's the word glory mean? It means to boast, it means to balk, it means to joy in or rejoice in, instead of having a sad song, he just danced in the rain. He just praised God.
Speaker 1:Oh Demas is going to leave me. Well, praise God. God, you've got somebody to take his place. Hallelujah, thank you, Lord. I mean Demas was a right hand to him for a period of time, and then he. The Bible says that Demas departed, having loved this present world, he left him Barnabas, him and Barnabas had a fallen out. Well, you know what Paul didn't? You know, give up on God. He just kept on going. He found Silas and started traveling with Silas. He said I have rather glory in adversity, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I mean, that's when the gray starts falling, when you can shout the victory right in the middle of when it's looking bad. So our proper attitude in adversity, see, all right.
Speaker 1:The second thing I see in that same verse is to be confident in God's grace through your faith, to see you through. It's God's grace, not you. It's not you being strong, it's not you being so you know, powerful yourself. No, it's the grace of God that you access by faith. Hold your place there.
Speaker 1:In 2 Corinthians, run over to Romans, chapter 5. Verse 1, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace. See, there's that word again. God wants you to have peace in the middle of the trouble. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access. By what? By faith, into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. See, that's God's plan. I mean to have access by faith, into this grace wherein we stand. We don't stand in our own strength, we don't stand in our own ability. We stand in the grace of God. We're able to rejoice in trouble because we know God's grace or God's ability. It comes upon us, it rests upon us and we're going to move through that mess. We're going to get to the other side of it. We're not going to camp out in it, we're not going to live there, we're not going to visit there, we're going to go right through it to the other side. So be confident in God's grace to see you through, because it's there, it's accessible through faith.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians 12, 13 is a wonderful verse. Let's look at that one Talking about the proper attitude and adversity. And it says here in verse 13, 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 12,. Yeah, that's the wrong one. Hold on. 1 Corinthians 10,. I wrote it down wrong.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians 10, 13. There hath no temptation. That word temptation means temptation, test or trial. There's no adversity. We could put adversity there and that would not be an error. There's no adversity. We could put adversity there and that would not be an error. There's no adversity taking you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to have adversity above what you're able but will, with adversity also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear. It, make a way of escape.
Speaker 1:So he says here that all adversity, all tests and trials and temptations are common to man. That is, the devil is limited in his attack to you and things that are common to man, in other words the natural realm. The natural realm. He can only tempt you in your flesh and in your mind. He can't, or in your finances. I mean he can tempt you in those areas. They're the flesh, that's the natural realm. All temptations, tests, trials, adversities are in the natural realm. But in 2 Corinthians 10, 4, the weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God. See, our answer to those temptation, tests and trials is common to God. We have weapons that are common to God.
Speaker 1:The devil has limited things common to man, but our weapons against him are things common to God. He's no match for us. He's no match for you when you believe God and you have access into this grace wherein you're able to stand against him, having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, you know, just stand through the trial Boy. It drives the devil crazy when he throws a hand grenade and all the smoke clears and you're still standing there saying, ah devil, bring it on. I tell you, it makes him crazy.
Speaker 1:So if there's anybody who wants you to be, not to be exalted, it's Satan. Satan does not want you to be exalted. Satan does not want you to be noticed. Satan wants to put you under. He wants to get you to to just to weaken and to bow and to just try to be invisible and try to just shut up. Don't you say anything, don't you speak that word. He just look. You just don't let the thoughts he throws at your mind be exalted. You put those thoughts down and replace them with God's thoughts and and rise up and don't whine. Shine, amen. Don't let the devil see you having a pity party. If you give yourself a pity party, well, make sure it's very short in duration. If you're going to throw yourself a pity party, make it very short. It's better not to, but if you just have to Hallelujah, be confident in God's grace, all right.
Speaker 1:So then the third one here, colossians, getting anything out of this? I can't hear you, but I'm just by faith, I just believe you're saying, yeah, that's what I needed. I know there's a reason. I was watching on Wednesday night, colossians 3, verse 15. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful. And I remember, going back to what Jesus was talking about with the disciples. He said these things that I have spoken to you. I've spoken them so that you might have that in me, you might have peace. So it's all about the peace that God wants you to have, no matter what's going on. And so here this verse is let the let the peace, you let the peace. It's not about praying for peace, it's not for asking for peace, it's not saying God, god, give me peace. No, let the peace, let the peace of God rule in your hearts.
Speaker 1:I like the amplified uh act as an umpire over your thoughts and your thoughts is where you can start to get off track, because he's throwing thoughts in your mind, thoughts of fear, thoughts of disaster, the what ifs. You know the doubts, all of those things are things that he throws at your mind. Where? What is that? That's things common to man.
Speaker 1:But now, when you start casting down those imaginations and you start saying, no, I'm not going to meditate on that, I'm going to let the peace of God rise up in Mount Guard over my heart and mind. Through Christ Jesus, I'm going to let my request be made known unto God. I'm going to pray. Instead of fretting and being anxious, I'm going to pray instead of. Instead of fretting and being anxious, I'm going to pray and and and. Let my request be made known unto God and I'm going to and I'm going to rejoice that he hears me. I'm going to have confidence in his, in his grace. So you have to maintain your peace. You know the devil's always trying to knock you off of your stand of peace. He's going to try to interrupt your peace. He'll try to interrupt your peace.
Speaker 1:You know, most of you know that Gladys is in a facility that helps her, and we've been. You know we've been. You know it's almost six months. Just two more weeks is going to be a six months that we've been living this way, and it gets you know to a place where, you know, I have to maintain my peace in my mind because the devil will throw things at my thinking and I'll begin to think you know, and how long it's been, and you know and this and that and the other, and then I have to go. Oh no, I've got grace, I'm going to access this grace.
Speaker 1:I've been saying that from the very first day that she went to the hospital with a broken pelvis, I said, honey, there's grace available for us. We're going to access this grace to get through this trial by faith. And we, we, I remind her, I remind myself all the time this is something I'm preaching what I've had to live, especially the last six months, because it's, it's been a trial that's longer than I don't know. I we've never had that happen in our marriage. You know, we've been together 56 years and uh, be 57 this summer and we've never had this. We never went through this kind of trial before, this kind of test, this kind of uh uh tribulation, if you will. But you know we've been able to stand.
Speaker 1:And then, when she gets that way, when she starts to feel a little down, you know, says, oh honey, let me pray over you Because you know, sometimes her mind gets a little confused and the more she thinks about her being there instead of home I mean, it's a nice place, but it's not home. She'd rather be home. And so she'll start going that direction. I said, oh honey, this is God's provision. Let me just pray over you and I just lay my hands on her head and I just speak peace over her, and then she just you know it just comes and see this you have to maintain your peace because it's something that the devil is attacking. He's always attacking, he's always trying to get you to give up ground, and if he can get a little headway in your thinking, then he can start prying peace away from you. And pretty soon shalom is gone and now you're acting. You know you're responding and you're reacting rather than responding.
Speaker 1:Amen Takes you out of the supernatural into the natural. Remember God's ways are supernatural. His answer to the devil is supernatural. The devil's attack is always things common to man. So let's get into the superior weapons that we have. Maintain your peace. Let peace rule as an umpire, or act as an umpire in your thought life.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the last one is 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 again, and Paul was talking about this thorn in the flesh and how he asked the Lord to take it away. And then he got a revelation. Oh, it's not about me taking it away, it's about you overcoming it. My grace is on you for that. You've got grace and we have grace. We have grace upon grace. This is the year of exceeding abundantly above All right. Second Corinthians, 12, verse 10.
Speaker 1:Therefore, see, all this is going on. He's under persecution, thorns in the flesh. They're persecuting Paul everywhere he goes. They're talking about him. In some cases they even stoned him. In some cases they beat him with rods. In some cases they put stripes on him.
Speaker 1:I mean, he had severe persecutions and he says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Oh, what in the world does that mean? It just means that he's overcoming adversity and it brings glory to God. He's doing it for the gospel sake. He's doing it for Christ, the anointed, within all his anointing. He's doing it for his glory. I mean, it comes with the territory.
Speaker 1:If you're going to be a witness for Jesus, not everybody's going to accept it. The devil's never going to accept it. He's going to do everything he can to shut your mouth. He's going to do everything he can If you can't shut your mouth. He's going to try to discredit you. He's going to try to smear you. He's going to try to libel you and all of that, I mean that just comes with the territory. And so what did he do? He went right back around and said no, I glory in all of that. I give glory to God because I know I'm getting through it. I'm overcoming every bit of this for the glory of God. And uh and it does bring God glory when we overcome these tribulations, this adversity, this adversity, the proper attitude for adversity.
Speaker 1:Amen, praise God. Let's lift our hands right now. Father, we thank you that we're overcomers. We have the greater one living on the inside of us. He puts us over in every circumstance. We don't have to stay awake at night. We don't have to be sleepless. We can go to sleep. Our sleep can be sweet and we can know that grace, through faith, is operating on our behalf all night long, while we're asleep, and even when we're not, we're paying attention to other things. Lord, your grace is working overtime to give us the victory. Hallelujah, praise God, amen.