7. No Pain, No Gain
7
NO PAIN, NO GAIN
We want it all—and we want it now. We are enslaved by a near worship of comfort and convenience.
God taught me this lesson early in my American ministry. It has helped me understand why the Church has so often become a stumbling block to the Gospel, when it should be the powerhouse of missions in the world today.
It became clear to me when the Lord opened the door to preach in a small Southern church. During the morning service, the Holy Spirit moved mightily over the congregation. There was a great conviction about the lost millions of Asia.
The pastor was especially touched. With tears in his eyes, he stood before his people and confessed that his heart had been cold toward missions. But he said that the Lord had given him a new vision that morning, and he wanted to see the congregation get involved in fulfilling the Great Commission.
He urged his people to pray about the needs of Asia and to return that evening to see our missionary slides. Again that night the Lord moved supernaturally, and many made decisions to support national missionaries.
It was early in our ministry, and in those days I often stayed overnight as a guest of the local pastor. After the meeting, he talked again about how the Lord had moved him.
At the time, we were planning a vision tour for pastors to come and see the work of our missionaries with their own eyes. So because of his intense interest, I offered this pastor an opportunity to join us for the tour.
He seemed fascinated as I told him of other leaders whose ministries had been revolutionized by a visit to the field.
Then he asked questions, but not the ones I expected. He wanted to know about the 100-degree heat we would be experiencing in North India, how we would travel, what the food would be like and where we would be staying.
Finally, he turned to me and said something that was to become a revelation to me. “Brother K.P., I’m just a country boy. I’ve been raised on biscuits and gravy. I’d probably get diarrhea if I went, and besides, I always ride in air-conditioned cars.”
Sadly, he never visited the mission field, though I left the door open for him. Like millions, just the thought of some temporary discomfort was enough to keep him from the spiritual adventure of a lifetime.
Businesses, politicians and even many church leaders cater to this soft and rotten spot in our souls. Fortunes have been made by corporations that will provide services without lines and hassles, that have learned to satisfy the demands of the consumer with instant gratification.
But there is a dark and deadly side to this fascination with comfort and convenience. Among the developed nations, every 5 seconds the life of an unborn child is snuffed out through abortion.[1] The reason usually given? “We’re just not ready to have a baby now.” Translated into plain English, this means that having the baby would be too inconvenient.
If a new human life should happen to get in the way of our career and income goals, school schedules or marriage plans, the first choice is ruthless and simple: kill it. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of feeling good.
Abortion is one of the most shocking, yet entirely logical, extensions of this obsession with comfort, convenience and luxury. Less dramatic, but just as deadly to millions of lost souls in our world, is our unwillingness to make even small sacrifices to reach them with the Gospel.
Paying the Price of Pain
Where are believers who will make a deliberate calculation to accept sacrifice and suffering for the sake of following Christ? We’ll never enter the enemy camp and storm the gates of hell until we realize again that a soldier does not live on feelings. Casualties, discomfort and injury are part of the program for victory. Real Christians accept suffering as a normal part of following Christ, just as mothers accept labor as a normal part of delivering a baby.
“No pain, no gain” applies to world evangelism as well as exercise programs! Until we can accept suffering, sacrifice and self-denial as routine and normal, we will never see the Great Commission fulfilled in our generation.
But our distorted ideals of the good life are deeply ingrained in our minds and lifestyles. They will not go without a conscious decision to become a servant rather than be served. Unless we choose the way of the cross, we will always find ourselves automatically falling into that pattern of extravagance and waste that has become the norm of this culture.
Visitors from other countries are stunned at the way we live in a world of throwaway products. Bottles, cans, cups, towels and plates are thoughtlessly trashed here that would be treasured anywhere else in the world. Why won’t we take the time to wash and reuse them? The reason is simple: Convenience is king, and the average person wouldn’t consider having it any other way.
Feeling Good Is Good Enough for Me
We have imitated this “throwaway” lifestyle with our current practice of Christianity. Today we have substituted a religion of good vibes and trouble-free living for the commands of the Master. He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” but we have clenched our fists and refused to open our palms. We won’t receive the nail, because it would mean death to our “self.” We demand instead to pleasure our desires for self-gratification. And we have found shepherds and Bible teachers who will give us a “feel good” theology to match and justify our lives of sinful rebellion.
The lyrics to a popular hit from the 1970s have become the national anthem of our current generation. The refrain went, “Feeling good was good enough for me.” How many millions live today with this as their guiding philosophy, including countless Christians?
Much of this popular “Santa Claus” religion today is centered around a horrible distortion of Bible doctrine and history. It is a teaching contrary to the central thrust of Scripture. It denies the demands of the Gospel and says, “You can have the good life now—and heaven besides!”
It tickles our ears to hear this religion taught. It promises us the services of a god who exists to solve all our problems—making us happy, healthy, popular, successful and rich. But this isn’t the Jesus Christ whom Paul and the apostles followed. Nor is it the God of Abraham, Moses, David or Elijah. It sounds much more like the false promises of Baal or the idol gods of paganism.
Christ’s Call to Suffering
Jesus never apologized for calling His disciples to a life of self-denial. It is interesting to see the way He handled this teaching with those who offered to follow Him.
He promised homelessness. We read in Luke 9:57 of an individual who bragged that he would follow Jesus wherever He would go. But apparently he turned back when Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).
He promised broken relationships. Another man said he would go but needed to bury his father first. Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60).
He promised separation and loneliness. A third would-be disciple said, “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” Jesus replied, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
It is obvious that Jesus will have no one among His followers who is wanting to put comfort, family ties or security in this world ahead of His kingdom. Jesus is saying, in effect, “I offer you what I have—hardship, hunger, labor, loneliness, rejection, sweat, tears and death. I’m a stranger and pilgrim in this world, and if you follow Me, you’ll have to break away from the clinging attachments of this present life.”
The Gospels give another example. A rich young ruler wanted to follow Jesus and asked what he would have to do to inherit the kingdom. Jesus replied simply, “Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor.” The young man walked away sad.
Jesus obviously loved him. It must have hurt to see the young man go. But in this case and in all the other similar stories, you never once see Jesus going after these would-be disciples. There is no effort to pacify them or modify and soften the uncompromising demands of the cross. It is either “give up everything and follow Me” or “don’t come at all.”
To all those who would follow Him, He gave the same basic message. Those who save their lives will lose them—and those who lose their lives for His sake will find them. The first shall be last and the last first.
There is no place in His band for those who are not willing to accept inconvenience, sufferings and uncertainty. This is still the price of following Christ today just as it was then.
I’m convinced the main reason why we are not impacting our generation for Christ is our refusal to be honest about Christianity. We have offered the world a gospel without sacrifice and suffering. We’ve done everything we can to apologize for Christ’s demands and to explain them away. We’ve told people that Jesus didn’t really mean what He said—that they can have Christ without His cross.
The result is all around us. We have apologetic, defensive, shallow Christians whose faith can’t turn the next corner, let alone turn the world upside down. Although we have millions of books and more head knowledge than any generation in Christian history, we still stand powerless and defeated.