Beauty for Ashes

I. Memorial Day will forever have an

extra meaning for New Life Church…
A. Tomorrow it will be 5 years ago that
tornadoes cut a path through Dayton.
1. Our city was devastated…
2. Our church was devastated…
3. I remember walking through the
parking lot that night thinking… what
are we going to do???
4. It was a unique season……
5. There was an Easter Sunday in the
gym during our construction… the
parking lot had been torn out…
6. And of course huge rains came
that week… mud was everywhere…
7. I stood outside and thought what a
mess… why would anybody come
here???
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 8. But they did…
9. But you did…
B. And as I look back today with a heart
of gratitude all I can say is… look
what the Lord has done…
1. Look what God did…
2. Look at what God did to our mess…
3. Look at how God turned everything
around…
C. God took a tragedy and made
something beautiful out of it…
1. Isaiah prophesied of Jesus that He
would give beauty for ashes…
2. The oil of joy for mourning.
3. The garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness…
4. Jesus certainly did that for us…
5. And continues to do that for us
individually and collectively…
6. He still trades Beauty for Ashes…
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D. We are not in this position in spite of
the tornado… we are in this position
because of the tornado…
1. I hated it…
2. I would never want to go through it
again…
3. My heart still races when tornado
sirens go off…
E. But I know this… we are better
because we went through it…
1. God made something beautiful out
of our mess…
2. He traded us beauty for ashes…
3. Oh… look what the Lord has done…
4. I know many gave…
5. I know many worked…
6. I know many sacri ced…
7. We are blessed to ful ll the very
words of Jesus, “that they may see

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 your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven…”
8. We all work together… and God
gets the glory…
9. To God be the glory for the things He
has done…
10. What a mighty God we serve…
F. This church… New Life Church
stands as a symbol of what God
can do…
1. What He did in this church… He can
do in your family…
2. What He did in this church… He can
do in your sickness…
3. What He did in this church… He can
do in your situation…
4. What He did in our mess… He can
do in your mess… whatever that is…
G. The Lord sent Jeremiah on a eld
trip… Jeremiah 18:2-6 NKJV
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 1. 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s
house, and there I will cause you to
hear My words.”
2. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s
house, and there he was, making
something at the wheel.
3. 4 And the vessel that he made of
clay was marred in the hand of the
potter; so he made it again into
another vessel, as it seemed good to
the potter to make.
4. 5 Then the word of the Lord came
to me, saying:
5. 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do
with you as this potter?” says the
Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the
potter’s hand, so are you in My
hand, O house of Israel!
H. Can I not do with you as this
potter???
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 1. Can I not take a marred life and
make something beautiful out of
you???
2. Can I not heal your sickness???
With His stripes… we are
healed…
3. Can I not bless your nances… He
sees when a sparrow falls to the
ground and you are more valuable
than many sparrows…
4. Whatever the need…
5. He is the potter… we are the
clay……
I. Romans 8:28 And we know that all
things work together for good to those
who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose.
NKJV
1. Paul said… and we know…
2. This isn’t something new…
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 3. This was common knowledge…
4. He was just reminding them of an
established truth…
J. All things…
1. Everything…
2. Every detail
3. All things at all times…
K. Work together for good…
1. All things aren’t good…
2. We know that…
3. Bad things happen…
4. Bad things happen to good people…
5. We make mistakes and we make
wrong choices…
L. This verse isn’t saying in any way
that God was responsible for our bad
choices or any of the negative that
happens to us in our lives…

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 1. All things are not good… but God
can work all things together for
good…
2. God can take something bad… and
mix it together with other
ingredients in our lives… and
make something good…
M. I’ve shared this story before, but it
really illustrates this verse…
1. I wasn’t married yet… I was
evangelizing… preaching in a
church in Roswell New Mexico…
2. The pastor’s wife… Daisy Fuqua
made homemade salsa…
3. As I watched her make that salsa… I
realized I don’t like one ingredient
she put in…
4. Tomatoes, onions, peppers, jalapino,
garlic…

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 5. But when she mixed them all
together…
6. I think I ate the whole bowl…
N. God is so amazing… that He can
even take the bad in our lives… and
mix them together with other things…
and when He get’s done… it’s good…
1. Our lives are a mixture of unique
ingredients…
2. There’s sweet honey as well as
bitter herbs…
3. But to those who love God… they
all work together for good…
4. God is the master chef…
5. He has the recipe for your life…
6. He can even make your current
mess into something good……
II. It’s been well over 100 years since
Alfred Adler introduced his

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 counterintuitive theory of
compensation...
A. The theory states that perceived
disadvantages often prove to be
well-disguised advantages because
they force us to develop attitudes and
abilities that would have otherwise
gone undiscovered...
1. The disabilities... the poverty... the
setbacks... all work together to help
us become our best...
2. It’s only as we compensate for those
disadvantages that we discover our
greatest gifts...
B. Seventy percent of the art students
Adler studied had optical anomalies.
1. He observed that some of history’s
greatest composers, Mozart and
Beethoven among them, had
degenerative traces in their ears.
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 2. Beethoven began to lose his hearing
at the age of 26 and the majority of
his works were composed after he
had gone completely deaf...
3. And he cited multiple other
examples from a wide variety of
vocations, of those who leveraged
their weakness by discovering new
strengths.
4. Albert Einstein had a learning
disability and didn’t speak until age
3. He had a very dif cult time in
school doing math.
5. Helen Keller became the rst blind
and deaf person to earn a college
degree.
C. Adler concluded that perceived
disadvantages, such as birth defects,
physical ailments, and poverty, can be
springboards to success.
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 1. And that success is not achieved in
spite of those perceived
disadvantages...
2. It is achieved because of them...
3. They didn’t succeed in spite of their
disabilities, but thrived because their
disabilities caused them to work
that much harder to make them
succeed...
4. Somebody with a less than
perfect life needs to hear me
today...
D. Further studies have added credibility
to Adler’s theory.
1. In one study of small-business
owners, 35% were self identi ed
dyslexics.
2. While none of us would wish
dyslexia on our children because of
the academic challenges that come
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 with it, that disadvantage forced this
group of entrepreneurs to cultivate
different skill sets.
3. Some of them became more
pro cient at oral communication
because reading was so dif cult.
Others learned to rely on well-
developed social skills to
compensate for the challenges they
faced in the classroom.
4. And all of them cultivated a work
ethic that might have remained
dormant if reading had come easily
for them...
E. I’ve become a fan of Shark Tank…
1. One of the things I love is that it’s
not just millionaires and billionaires
investing in companies…

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 2. They are all millionaires and
billionaires who didn’t come from
money…
3. Some even from poverty…
4. They always say the greatest
entrepreneurs are those who have
no choice but to succeed…
F. And this isn’t about becoming a
billionaire, but how many careers
have been built out of a personal
need or even trauma…
1. People have built businesses out of
helping people through some of the
same things they came through…
2. How many ministries have been
born out of personal need…
3. You give what you need most…
4. Because I have rsthand experience
of this lack in my own life… I am
able to minister to others…
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 5. Not in spite of the need, but because
of it…
G. That’s step 12 of addiction
recovery…
1. Having had a spiritual awakening as
the result of these steps we tried to
carry this message to others and to
practice these principles in all our
affairs…
2. One of the greatest helps to an
addict is a former addict who can
say I’ve been clean for 3 years
(Aaron Beery has been clean for 3
years) or 30 years… and you can
do it too…
H. Destiny isn’t revealed on sunny
days... It’s usually revealed in a
tornado……
I. There are so many life lessons in
the story of Joseph…
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1. He wasn’t expecting to be thrown
into a pit by his brothers that day.
2. It caught him off guard.
3. He wasn’t prepared...
4. He didn’t see it coming...
5. But Joseph never got bitter...
6. He didn’t just survive... he thrived
everywhere he went...
7. He was sold into slavery and the
next thing you know he was in
charge of all the other servants.
8. He was thrown into prison and then
he was in charge of all the other
prisoners.
9. Then Pharaoh appoints Joseph to
be Prime Minister over Egypt and
from one day to the next… he goes
from the prison to the palace and
helps guide the then known world

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 through a seven year famine and in
doing so saves his own family...
J. Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you
meant evil against me; but God meant
it for good, in order to bring it about as
it is this day, to save many people
alive. NKJV
1. You meant it for evil…
2. You meant it to hurt me…
3. You meant it to destroy my
dreams…
4. But God meant it for good…
5. God worked it together for good…
6. God took that tragedy…
7. I didn’t understand it at the time…
8. But God was with me…
9. God was working…
10. You meant it for evil, but God meant
it for good…

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K. The kind words of Joseph to the very
brothers who had cast him in a pit,
sold him into slavery, and told his
father he was dead... Sound a lot
like the words of Jesus from the
cross...
1. Father forgive them for they know
not what they do...
2. They mean it for evil... You mean it
for good... for the salvation of many
lives...
3. God meant it for good…
L. I wish somebody who’s been
wounded by someone could hear
me today...
1. Maybe it was a parent???
2. Maybe it was a spouse???
3. Maybe it was a friend???
4. Maybe it was a preacher???

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 5. Father forgive them... they don’t
really know what they’re doing...
6. I’ve got to forgive you...
7. You meant it for evil, but God knew I
needed it to reach my destiny...
8. God is working on me, and God is
working in me...
9. I’ve got to keep my spirit right...
10. I can’t let a hurt in my life turn to
bitterness... My soul is too
important……
M. This is from our Freedom
Curriculum… We had around 50 go
through on our st time…
1. Martin Luther said, “Forgiveness is
opening your hands and releasing a
prisoner and realizing the prisoner
was you…”
N. And God has an answer for a hard
heart…
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 1. Unforgiveness will harden your
heart…
2. Bitterness will turn it to stone…
3. Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new
heart and put a new spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of
your esh and give you a heart of
esh. NKJV
4. I don’t know how God does it… but
He can take out the stoney heart…
and replace it with a heart of esh…
5. He can do it today…
6. Ask God to do it…
7. Allow God to do it…
8. Set the prisoner free today……
III. We look at our situation and think,
what a mess...
1. But God looks at our mess as a
training ground...

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 2. Come on sir... Come on ma’am...
God is working on you and me...
3. He looked at Josephs pit as the
perfect training ground to be the
leader in Egypt.
4. God is teaching us and training
us in this time to be what He
wants us to be...
5. Think of the mess as the potters
wheel…
6. Maybe my life isn’t spinning out of
control… I’m spinning, but I’m in
His hands…
7. It’s going to be alright… as long as
I’m in His hands…
8. I’m on the potter’s wheel…
B. The hurt, the the trial, the
misunderstanding, the sickness…
insert your situation here…

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 1. We don’t minister in spite of the
hurt... We minister because of the
hurt...
2. We don’t minister in spite of the
pain... We minister because of the
pain...
3. I believe God is asking somebody
today to lay down the excuses...
C. Instead of that thorn in the esh
sidelining us... What if somebody
said, “Thy grace is suf cient...”???
1. Let that weakness motivate you...
2. Let the disability push you...
3. Let that wound mold you...
4. What’s God doing in us???
5. I don’t understand it, but God, let
Your will be done in me...
6. Somehow... this is going to make me
stronger... this is going to make me
better...
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 7. The apostle Paul never let his
thorn in the esh to become a
thorn in the spirit...
D. In our discussion at our addiction
recovery meeting on Tuesday…
1. Someone spoke up and said… “I
used to think of myself as a victim…
now I realize I’m a survivor…”
2. I’m not a victim… I’m a survivor…
E. God wants to redeem every attack
the enemy has waged against us...
He desires to tear down every
intimidation of the adversary... What
the enemy means for evil... God will
use for good...
1. Don’t waste suffering...
2. Don’t waste failure…
3. Don’t waste pain…
4. Don’t waste tears...
5. Don’t waste the hurt…
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 6. Don’t waste disappointments...
7. Don’t waste cancer…
8. Don’t waste depression...
F. God wants to recycle those
things...
1. God wants to use those for His holy
Purpose...
2. God has a plan...
3. God is working in you and on you...
4. Don’t let this mess stop you... let it
train you...
5. Don’t waste this current situation...
6. Whatever you’re going through…
Give it to God...
7. Let God… allow God to do what God
does best... turn it to something
good...
8. Let Him trad beauty for ashes…
G. I’m not going to waste it...
1. What are you trying to teach me???
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 2. Why am I the way I am???
3. What do You need me to learn???
4. Who do You want me to help???
5. What are You doing in me???
6. How will You get glory from my
current situation???
7. How can this make me better???
8. Don’t let me miss it...
9. Don’t let me despise it...
H. I don’t understand why I’m here God...
But You do Your perfect work in
me......
I. It took 23 years for God to get Joseph
ready to ful ll his dream...
1. It took 120 years to get Noah ready
for the ood...
2. It took 40 years to get Moses and
the children of Israel through the
wilderness...

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 3. Gene Edwards said, “God allowed
David to go through 2 decades of
hell because God needed a David,
God didn’t need another Saul...”
J. Sometimes God takes his time... but
God never wastes His time...
1. He uses it in preparing us for what
He is going to do in us and through
us...
2. If God is putting you through it
today... He’s up to something...
3. There’s a reason... There’s a plan...
There’s a purpose...
4. Not my will... But Thy will be done...
5. God You nish what you’ve started
in me…
6. When I get through this re... I will
come forth as pure gold...
K. Destiny isn’t just revealed in your
natural gifts and abilities. It’s also
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 revealed in those skills you have to
work extra hard to develop...
L. Jesus invitation is still the same
today… “Come unto Me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden… and I will
give you rest…”
1. He still trades beauty for ashes...
2. He still works all things together for
good...
3. He still turns stumbling blocks into
stepping stones...
4. He still turns evil to good...
M. How is God going to do it for
you???
1. This church stands as a testimony of
what God can do with a mess…
2. The life of Joseph is a testimony of
what God can do with a mess…
3. All things still work together for
good…
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 4. Your disadvantage may be your
greatest advantage…
5. The potters house is a testimony of
what God can do with a mess…
6. Can I not do with you as this
potter…
N. Stand with me…
1. Lift your hands……
O. I want to open this altar to somebody
who… you have a mess… but you
also have a calling…
1. You have a situation… but you also
have a God…

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