Kerry Shook - Finding Heaven
Hey, everyone. We're in a church-wide challenge that we're calling the "Heaven On Earth Adventure" because in the Lord's Prayer Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". So, we are to pray for the peace of heaven to come into our homes. We need to pray for the healing of heaven to come into our relationships, our neighborhoods, our workplaces. Now, we know we're not in heaven yet. We live in a very broken and sin-sick world, but God wants to bring some heaven to your place on earth. But let's be honest, sometimes life is so painful and the problems are so overwhelming, it feels like you're going through hell on earth. It's in those deeply painful, confusing moments that it's really hard to see any heaven in the situation.
And the Bible is clear, God doesn't cause evil, he doesn't cause bad. God is a good and loving God, but he is also all powerful. That means there are times when he allows suffering and bad things into our lives. He's all powerful so he could stop it, right? He doesn't cause it, but he could stop it. And that makes us come face to face with that disturbing question, why does God allow so much suffering in the world? Why is there so much hell on earth? The Bible gives us several reasons, but it doesn't tell us all the reasons as to why God allows suffering in this world. One of the reasons is God loves you, and he wants you to love him back.
And so, he had to give us this powerful thing called free will because love is not really love unless you give someone the power to choose whether or not they want to love you back and serve you. And so, God loved us so much that he gave us the gift of free will where we get to choose whether or not we love him back. And because of that, we make sinful choices that are destructive to us and others and so much of the evil in the world today is caused by sinful choices, greed, selfishness, murder, arrogance, racism, hatred, lies, lust. Our sinfulness and our sinful choices causes a lot of the pain and the evil in our world. But that doesn't explain it all like natural disasters.
Why does God allow hundreds of children to be killed in an earthquake? Why does God allow an innocent civilians to be killed in a war and call it collateral damage? Why does God allow a baby to be abandoned and caught in the system where no one cares? Why does God allow a young wife and a mother to get cancer? Why does God allow a family of five going to church on Sunday morning to be killed by a drunk driver who's been out partying all night? Why? I don't know all the answers. I don't think there's anyone on earth who knows all the answers. And there are times when I just say, "Why, God? It makes no sense. Why did you allow that"?
But if we could really know all the answers as to why there is suffering in the world, and one day we will. When we get to heaven, we'll know all the answers. But even if God now told us all the answers as to why he sometimes allows evil and bad and painful things into our lives, it wouldn't help us. Really, it wouldn't help us because what we need when we're hurting is not answers. What we need when we're hurting is comfort, comfort in our crisis, healing in our deepest hurt. See, I don't have all the answers, but I can point you to the answer, Jesus Christ, and the comfort of his presence, the comfort that his presence brings when we're going through pain.
And by the way, if you ever find a church where the pastor has all the answers, you just joined a cult, and you're gonna need an intervention soon. But one day, it will all come clear when we get to heaven. One day, all of our questions will be answered, everything will be revealed. But today, I want you to see that when you're going through pain, and nothing makes sense and it feels like you're walking through hell on earth, that's when God can bring the most heaven into your place on earth. The passage we're gonna look at today doesn't have all the answers, but it gives us 100% assurance that God will take your hopeless situation and bring heaven out of it.
And no matter what trial you're going through, there is a purpose in the pain. And there is no problem that can stop God's heavenly purpose for your life. God never wastes a hurt, and God can take every hurt, even the deepest hurts, and bring heaven into it and out of it. So, open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, beginning with verse 26. And would you stand in honor of God's Word? And just follow along with me. "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters". You can be seated. One of the most famous verses in all the Bible is tucked in the middle of this passage. It's Romans 8:28. One of the most quoted verses in all Scripture is Romans 8:28, "For we know that God works everything together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose".
And so, many times this promise is misquoted. Sometimes Christians will say, "Well, don't worry about it because God says it's all good. It's all good with God". No, there are some things in this world that are really bad. It's not all good. Cancer is not good. Divorce is not good. Bankruptcy is not good. Losing your job is not good. The loss of a loved one is not good. It doesn't say everything is good. There's a lot that's bad in the world, but it does say God can take everything, even the bad and the most painful things that come into your life, and bring good out of it. Romans 8:28 doesn't give us all the answers, but it does give us 100% assurance that whatever comes into your life, if you're a Christ follower, whatever comes into your life, God will somehow take it and make it into something that brings glory to him and good in your life.
Romans 8:28, this amazing, powerful promise doesn't give us all the answers, but it gives us 100% assurance that no matter what comes into your life, the good, the bad, the evil, the ugly, the anxiety, the depression, the exhilarating times, the painful times, the gut-wrenching times, that everything that comes into your life, God can somehow take it and make it into something beautiful and good in your life. What an amazing promise. We have great assurance because of this promise, but most of the time when we quote Romans 8:28, we don't look at the passages right before it and the verses right after it.
And so, we're gonna do that today because they are just as important as Romans 8:28. And you're gonna see that it means even more when you study it in this passage because there are three things that we really learn from this that tell us what to do to bring some heaven into a situation that looks like hell on earth. What do we do? First, keep praying. Keep praying. When you're going through hell on earth, you keep praying for God to bring heaven into it. You gotta keep praying. That's what we've been doing in this series, praying for some heaven to come to our place on earth, for God to bring heaven, the healing of heaven, the hope of heaven right into where we are, into our hearts, our lives, our homes, our neighborhoods, our city, for God to bring heaven to earth. You gotta keep praying.
In Romans 8:26 it says, "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans". He's saying when all you can do is just cry out to God, when the pain is so great that all you can do is just cry, if you're a Christ follower, somehow the Holy Spirit of God in you takes those tears and turns them into words that become powerful prayers that go straight to our heavenly Father. And he responds and answers those prayers. Says, "Even when I don't know how to pray, if I just bring my hurt to God, if I just hurl myself upon God, then the Holy Spirit inside me will take that hurt, that pain, and turn it into a prayer, a prayer that God will hear and God will answer".
And so, when you're grieving, when you're hurting, even when you're mad at God, just hurl yourself at him, hurl yourself at God in your anger and just say, "God, I don't like this. It makes no sense. I'm so mad at you, God. Why did you allow this? I don't understand. Don't even love me? Don't you even care"? Hurl yourself in anger at God, and he will catch you and he will hold you. And the Holy Spirit inside you will take the anger and edit it. And he will edit it and take it right to our heavenly Father in prayer that prays for the exact thing that you need, even when you don't know what you need. And God will answer that prayer.
Take your confusion and hurl it at God. "God, I'm so confused. This makes no sense. I don't even know how to pray, but I'm here God, trying to pray. But this situation I'm in is so complicated. I don't even get it. I understand why this is happening. And God, I just pour it all out to you". And the Holy Spirit of God will take that confusing, rambling prayer and turn it into specific, powerful words of exactly what you need from God.
So, even when you're walking through hell on earth, you keep praying. The only thing you can't do when you're going through pain is to turn away from God. God says, "You can bring your anger to me". He's the Rock of Ages. He's strong enough to handle it. Even when everything in your life has been shaken and everything in your life is crumbling, you can hurl yourself up on the Rock of Ages who will never be shaken, and he will hold you and he will be strong. He will take the anger, the hurt, and the pain, everything. You just pour it out on him. He's big enough to handle it. And you pour it out on him, and the Holy Spirit will intercede for you and pray exactly what you need, even when you don't know what to pray.
As long as you keep coming to him and you keep praying, you keep praying and you don't quit and you keep praying, and you keep praying and you don't give up, you just keep coming to him, and he will bring heaven into your deepest wounds. He will bring heaven into your most broken places. He will bring heaven right into that hell on earth. And so, you gotta keep praying, keep seeking him. And then secondly, that's it, keep seeking, keep praying, keep seeking. What do I mean by that? Well, in Romans 8:27, the next verse, it says, "And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will".
And so, when we begin to pour it out on God, we keep praying, and the Holy Spirit turns those tears into words. And they become a powerful prayer to God as to what we need, then God begins to move our hearts to his will. God begins to move our hearts from the question, "Why? Why, God? to where, God, is this pain leading me"? We all ask, "Why, God"? It's just human to do that. "Why, God? I don't get it". But really, if we knew all the answers, it wouldn't bring the comfort that we need. It wouldn't really help us that much. We'd still be hurting deeply.
And so, what happens is when we pour it out all on God and we hurl ourselves at God, when we're hurting, God begins to turn our question from why, to where? Where is this pain leading me? Because pain never leaves you where it finds you. God uses pain to point us in a new direction. And that's why someone here needs this next promise directly from God to you. It's in Isaiah 43:19, God says this, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland".
God is saying, "I'm directing you into something new". God uses pain to push us into his purpose because none of us would really pray for pain. "God, send a very painful situation my way. God, I pray that you would send an overwhelming problem to me". No, we don't do that. And God knows that it's that pain that many times pushes us out of our comfort zone into our calling. It's the pain God uses to push us into his purpose for our lives, or we'll miss out on that beautiful purpose that brings fulfillment.
And so many times, God will allow painful situation into our lives to point us in a new direction. I want you to meet Bill and Colleen, some great members of Woodlands Church. And Bill grew up as a child that in an abusive situation, was eventually put in foster care and but then after Bill and Colleen married, they had infertility issues that caused so much pain in their life and wondering why. But then it led them to start asking, "Where, God, is this leading us"? And God used their pain to propel them into their purpose. Just watch.
Colleen Ellison: I met Bill through the homebuilding industry, and he was very charismatic. And after our first date, we never left each other side. And then ten months later, we were married.
Bill Ellison: From the time I was ten until the time I was 13, was a very abusive relationship with my mother's husband. Ultimately, that led to me being put into foster care because my mother's husband literally beat me with a horse bridle. After I was in the home, group home for a while, I eventually ran away. Well, then I became a runaway. And so, they wouldn't take me back into that group home. So, my mother had told them, at that point, "I don't know what you're gonna do with him, just keep him". They didn't have anywhere to take me to place me at that point and so, I spent the night in jail for the first time at 13 years old. It was a pivotal point in my life because I knew that a healthy family environment is what I really wanted.
Colleen Ellison: I had two beautiful stepchildren. We had gone through fertility for about 13 years. We knew we wanted to expand our family, and there was still something that felt like was really lacking in our marriage that we couldn't have our own child.
Bill Ellison: It wasn't as difficult for me because I had two kids. I, you know, I was there when they were born, all those kind of things. I'd experienced those, but Colleen wasn't able to. And so, it was very difficult for me to understand what she was going through.
Colleen Ellison: We got invited to come to Woodlands Church, and it was the perfect message for us that day. Pastor Kerry had two cars on stage, one that was the God's will car, and one that was your will. And he very clearly articulated that you can be in one of those cars, but there's one car that's the path for your life. And we were probably in the your will car and not necessarily, maybe we were passengers in the God's will car, but we were telling God how to drive.
Bill Ellison: We had to stop and say, "Okay, we keep pushing forward, we keep pushing forward, and this is not happening. Okay, let's listen to what God wants us to do".
Colleen Ellison: When they say God shuts a door, and you can't walk through it, that certainly is how he prepared us. Bill was in a really bad car accident, and the fertility medicine that we were on, he could no longer take. So, that door was completely closed. Everything about Woodlands Church has changed our perspective on how to handle things more faithfully and prayerfully and taking those steps, even when they're hard.
Bill Ellison: It really opened our eyes to a different way of thinking of "Well, if, you know, if this is not meant to be for us to expand our family between the two of us, how can we reach out and help to change a different child's life"? And so, that led us to the Foster To Adopt Program with Arrow Ministries. Taking that first step was a difficult thing. That was probably the most difficult thing for me. I don't have time. You know, I've got work to do. I've got these things. I've got every excuse in the book. Once I did it and we committed to it, then it was the easiest thing. And then the phone call came. And they called her and said, "Hey, we have three little children that we want you to come meet, and they're four, five, and seven". And, of course, what she tells me I'm thinking, Wait, what? Hold on. Well, that wasn't our plan. This was God's plan. So, we went to Arrow Ministries just to meet these children. And we were gonna take them for the weekend and do what's called respite, which is we were just gonna watch them for the weekend, see how things go. And then we were gonna turn around and bring them back to the foster family that they were with prior. Well, we took them home and we basically made the decision at that point, and they never left. For them to finally be with us is life-changing for us. I mean, it truly is. You know, for the guys that are out there and you're afraid to take that step, take baby steps. Go through the process. If it's really what you want to do, you'll do it. For so many years, the way that I looked at in my experience was embarrassment. But now I tell the story for encouragement. You can change your life, as well as others.
Bill Ellison: From the time I was ten until the time I was 13, was a very abusive relationship with my mother's husband. Ultimately, that led to me being put into foster care because my mother's husband literally beat me with a horse bridle. After I was in the home, group home for a while, I eventually ran away. Well, then I became a runaway. And so, they wouldn't take me back into that group home. So, my mother had told them, at that point, "I don't know what you're gonna do with him, just keep him". They didn't have anywhere to take me to place me at that point and so, I spent the night in jail for the first time at 13 years old. It was a pivotal point in my life because I knew that a healthy family environment is what I really wanted.
Colleen Ellison: I had two beautiful stepchildren. We had gone through fertility for about 13 years. We knew we wanted to expand our family, and there was still something that felt like was really lacking in our marriage that we couldn't have our own child.
Bill Ellison: It wasn't as difficult for me because I had two kids. I, you know, I was there when they were born, all those kind of things. I'd experienced those, but Colleen wasn't able to. And so, it was very difficult for me to understand what she was going through.
Colleen Ellison: We got invited to come to Woodlands Church, and it was the perfect message for us that day. Pastor Kerry had two cars on stage, one that was the God's will car, and one that was your will. And he very clearly articulated that you can be in one of those cars, but there's one car that's the path for your life. And we were probably in the your will car and not necessarily, maybe we were passengers in the God's will car, but we were telling God how to drive.
Bill Ellison: We had to stop and say, "Okay, we keep pushing forward, we keep pushing forward, and this is not happening. Okay, let's listen to what God wants us to do".
Colleen Ellison: When they say God shuts a door, and you can't walk through it, that certainly is how he prepared us. Bill was in a really bad car accident, and the fertility medicine that we were on, he could no longer take. So, that door was completely closed. Everything about Woodlands Church has changed our perspective on how to handle things more faithfully and prayerfully and taking those steps, even when they're hard.
Bill Ellison: It really opened our eyes to a different way of thinking of "Well, if, you know, if this is not meant to be for us to expand our family between the two of us, how can we reach out and help to change a different child's life"? And so, that led us to the Foster To Adopt Program with Arrow Ministries. Taking that first step was a difficult thing. That was probably the most difficult thing for me. I don't have time. You know, I've got work to do. I've got these things. I've got every excuse in the book. Once I did it and we committed to it, then it was the easiest thing. And then the phone call came. And they called her and said, "Hey, we have three little children that we want you to come meet, and they're four, five, and seven". And, of course, what she tells me I'm thinking, Wait, what? Hold on. Well, that wasn't our plan. This was God's plan. So, we went to Arrow Ministries just to meet these children. And we were gonna take them for the weekend and do what's called respite, which is we were just gonna watch them for the weekend, see how things go. And then we were gonna turn around and bring them back to the foster family that they were with prior. Well, we took them home and we basically made the decision at that point, and they never left. For them to finally be with us is life-changing for us. I mean, it truly is. You know, for the guys that are out there and you're afraid to take that step, take baby steps. Go through the process. If it's really what you want to do, you'll do it. For so many years, the way that I looked at in my experience was embarrassment. But now I tell the story for encouragement. You can change your life, as well as others.
God uses tough times to turn us into his purpose, and he's positioning you. And when we bring heaven on earth, God brings heaven into our hearts. And so this week, I want you to open your eyes to see the needs of someone else. Do you not perceive it? God's doing something new and amazing in your life right now, but it'll be activated when you begin to see the needs of others. And as you meet the needs of someone else, God's gonna meet your needs. And this is an amazing way to bring heaven on earth and for your heart to align with God's heart. But then you want to ask, "What is the pain revealing about me? Where's the pain leading me? What's it revealing about me"? Because pain exposes what's in our hearts, in our lives, and our character.
It says in 1 Peter 1:7, "These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire test and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world". And so, when the pressure is on, whatever's on the inside is gonna come out. You squeeze a tube of toothpaste, what comes out? Shaving cream? No, toothpaste. It's what's on the inside. You squeeze a lemon, what comes out? Sweet orange juice? No, sour lemon juice. That's what was on the inside. And sometimes when the pressure is on me and I burst out in anger, I think that's not like me. Or when I'm really stressed, I do something dumb or selfish, and that's not like me. But really that was what was on the inside.
When the pressure is on, what's on the inside is gonna come out. And it should be a question that we ask, "What is this pain revealing about my character that needs to change, God"? And God will show you. It will be revealed. And then, "What is the pain teaching me"? C.S. Lewis said, "Pain is the greatest teacher of all". In 2 Corinthians 12:9 it says, "Each time God said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.'" Paul prayed for God to take away this struggle, this weakness in his life.
And God said, "Paul, normally when you pray, I answer it right away. But on this one, I'm gonna leave this struggle with you. I'm gonna leave this pain with you. I'm gonna leave this problem with you. I'm gonna leave this weakness with you because it's in this weakness that it reminds you to turn to me in my power. And so, in your weakness, I can be even stronger in your life". And it's our pain that pushes us to our knees to depend upon God. It's my weakness that makes me depend on God's strength so much more so I find his power. You can't find God's power without your own pain. It's the pain that pushes you into God's power. And God can do something amazing through the pain, through the struggle. God wants to bring about his purpose in the pain. God wants to give you his presence in the pain, and God will give you his power in the middle of the pain. He'll bring heaven right into your deepest hurt.
And that brings me to the third thing. We keep praying, we keep seeking, we keep trusting. Even when you can't see it, just keep trusting God. Keep trusting, don't give up. In Romans 8:28 and 29 it says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God, He knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters". And so, God's purpose is that he's making you more like his Son Jesus Christ. And the pain just chips away all the rough edges of your character that don't look like Jesus. The pain just takes away all of the things that don't look like Jesus in your life. And he's making you more like Jesus right now in the pain. But keep trusting because God's bringing heaven right now. Do you not perceive it?