Don't Waste Your Crisis: How to Recover from a Self-Inflicted Wound

Psalm 51 May 15, 2026 Pastor Chris Oswald

Thesis You will waste your crisis if you do not see it fundamentally as God bringing you back to himself, prioritizing restored intimacy with him over the restoration of your circumstances, reputation, or old life.

Series

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Type

Topical

Tone

pastoralpropheticdidactic

Method

applicatorycanonical

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

46 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #20

"Application of the relational diagnosis: if you manage consequences without restoring intimacy with God, the crisis is wasted. Cites Psalm 42 to describe the posture needed—active longing for God. The danger is emerging with managed consequences but unchanged heart."

Doctrinal loci· 11 surfaced

Sanctification · 24 Theology Proper · 14 Christology · 9 Providence / Sovereignty · 9 Hamartiology · 6 Soteriology · 6 Anthropology · 3 Ecclesiology · 2 Eschatology · 1 Pastoral Theology · 1 Pneumatology · 1

Bible citations· 18

Illustrations· 3

personal story · unit #4 — Uses medical TV shows from the pastor's childhood to illustrate the definition of crisis as a decisive moment with binary outcomes. The personal digression establishes rapport and ethos—the pastor as someone shaped by formative cultural experiences.
personal story · unit #23 — Personal testimony illustrating freedom from fear of man. The pastor admits his own struggle and incomplete victory but attributes whatever freedom he has to abiding in Christ. The christological grounding—'Christ is not afraid of man'—becomes the source of human freedom.
analogy · unit #27 — Illustrates the paradox of Christian suffering: looking like a martyr (nothing externally) while possessing everything (the Lord). The comparison to Jesus grounds the experience in christological reality—this is what union with Christ looks like.

Theological claims· 20

Suffering does not automatically sanctify; it can leave a person worse or unchanged. unit #2
Every person faces self-made crises, and the critical question is how to respond once you are already in one. unit #5
God prefers the brokenhearted and those disappointed with themselves—he is with them in their crisis. unit #7
Crisis can be wasted by doing nothing or by responding foolishly, making the pain pointless. unit #9
Crisis can produce a sweet harvest, and the fact that your sin was exposed is evidence that God is at work in your life, not absent from it. unit #10
You waste your crisis if you fail to see it as God personally at work—this is not random misfortune but divine intervention. unit #13
Crisis is severe mercy, not pure curse—God wounds to heal, strips away to restore, and disciplines to rescue from illusion, not to punish. unit #15
You waste your crisis if the cross does not become more glorious and necessary to you—crisis should deepen your gratitude for atonement. unit #16
Crisis is fundamentally the result of wandering from God—the behaviors that caused it are symptoms of relational distance, not the root problem. unit #19
The goal of crisis is not recovering your old life but gaining Christ—you succeed when you emerge more dependent on and delighted in God, not when circumstances normalize. unit #21
You waste your crisis when fear of man and embarrassment become your primary concern rather than offending God—this reveals distance from Jesus, not closeness. unit #22
You waste your crisis if you isolate rather than allowing it to deepen your love and soften you toward others. unit #25
You waste your crisis by treating it as terminal—you will be fine, more than fine, if you turn to the Lord rather than grieving as though your life is over. unit #28
You will waste your crisis if you treat your old sins casually once the initial brokenness fades—expect this temptation around 60-90 days and resist it. unit #29
You waste your crisis if you miss its evangelistic potential—God is making you broken and healed, a rare and precious category of person who can minister to others uniquely. unit #30
All sin is firstly and finally against God—it begins as rebellion against his rule and wandering from his love, and it ends there even when horizontal debts are paid. unit #33
You must not reduce crisis to behavior modification—the issue is a broken personal relationship with a God who wants intimacy, not a pragmatic choice that needs correction. unit #34
The best barometer of spiritual health is talking to God throughout the day, because humanity's most fundamental function is walking with God in the cool of the day. unit #35
You will waste your crisis if you do not see it as God bringing you back to himself—the goal is not better behavior but closeness to God. unit #36
The God behind your crisis is your creator, sustainer, and redeemer who is using your sin to turn you back to himself. unit #38

Quotations· 4

"Don't Waste Your Cancer" — John Piper (unit #2)

"pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world" — C.S. Lewis (unit #12)

"come now, let us reason together" — Isaiah (paraphrase) (unit #13)

"why do you spend money on that which does not satisfy" — Isaiah (paraphrase) (unit #13)

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0 · Opens with casual, relational address signaling pastoral intent

Hey, how's it going? This has been on my mind for quite some time. I wanted to try to help you with something,!

1 · Introduces the framing borrowed from Piper but immediately narrows the focus to the sermon's controlling concern: suffering's non-automatic sanctifying effect

Don't Waste Your Cancer. And the burden of the peace was simple. Suffering does not automatically sanctify you. You can go through a severe mercy and come out the other side either worse or unchanged.

2 · Establishes the foundational theological claim that suffering has no inherent sanctifying power

And I think that's just really important to understand. Suffering does not always make a person better. We hear those stories and we assume that's the case, but that's not always the case. At least not in the short term. And so I want to borrow Piper's framing and widen it a bit.

3 · Defines the sermon's subject precisely: self-inflicted crisis

I don't mainly want to talk about cancer, but as you can see here, I want to talk about crisis. Crisis. Specifically the kind of crisis that you sowed yourself. The kind where the seeds were put in the ground either actively through sins of commission or passively through sins of omission. And you sowed these seeds yourself and now you're in a situation that's not great. And how do you respond to this? The word crisis really does mean decision or judgment or turning point.

4 · Uses medical TV shows from the pastor's childhood to illustrate the definition of crisis as a decisive moment with binary outcomes

The older medical term or the older medical usage of this. I think I remember this from like MASH and Quincy. By the way, if you ever wonder why I'm so interested in medicine, you know, we didn't have cable growing up. We had, you know, broadcast TV and these shows, these medical shows were the thing that was on. I remember MASH was on every single day at, I want to say 4.30, something like that. Anyway, so yeah, I watched all these medical shows. That's how the term was used years ago. The crisis was this patient is in a particular moment. It could go either way. Something big is going to happen, a massive recovery or death or whatever.

5 · Democratizes crisis—not just for public figures but for everyone

And so I thought I would talk about how to not waste those particular moments when you have done the damage and you're in a crisis because of the damage that you've done. You know, we think of the word crisis or scandal and we think about, you know, important people and big deal stuff. But that's not, that's not like everybody has crisis. Everybody has moments that are just, this may not go well for me. Cancer is one kind of crisis. Financial collapse, exposure, your sins being found out, moral failure. These self-made crisis. I want to talk about, okay, you're in this situation. What do you do?

6 · The pastor steps outside the argument to reveal his own struggle with the sermon—God's persistent burden on him, his fear of inadequacy, his sense that he's been delaying

Well, you know, the reason why I'm sharing this with you is because God has just not let me not do this. I have been thinking about this for weeks. And every time I'm doing something that doesn't require my brain to be active, like this morning I got up and mowed the lawn. What am I thinking about? I'm thinking about this. And so I think I've been delaying it in large part because I think it's so important. And I don't know that I'll do a very competent job. But I'm going to try to, this is really coming from my heart. I think it's coming from God's heart.

7 · Makes a claim about God's heart—he prefers the brokenhearted and self-disappointed

God is with the brokenhearted. He's with the people who are fed up with themselves, disappointed with themselves. That's the kind of person he prefers, to be honest. And yeah, he just, he wants me to share this with you and I'm going to try to do my best.

8 · Distinguishes between acute crisis (one or two decisions) and chronic crisis (long patterns)

So some people are in crisis that are, you know, one, you know, maybe two or three dumb decisions. And now, boom, you know, it just takes one dumb decision to mess up everything. And then there are other people who went on forever in a particular pattern of behavior. And now they're paying the price. And so what do we do about this?

9 · Reiterates the sermon's controlling concern: crisis can be wasted by inaction or by worse action

Well, first thing, don't miss what I said at the beginning. And that is, you know, you can waste this. You absolutely can waste this. You could do, you could, you could do nothing. You could do something dumber in response to your crisis. Like there's a lot of possibilities of screwing this up. So, uh, you know, what pain feels like right now and it's not fun. Well, let's not make it worse.

10 · Introduces the counterpoint to waste: the possibility of a sweet harvest

And also the truth is, is that this can produce a sweet harvest in the end. You know, Hebrews says that God disciplines those whom he loves and that no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but in the end yields a fruitful, pleasant harvest. And the reality is, is that plenty of people get away with stuff all the way through to their grave. And so one of the things I'd encourage you on is if you're experiencing a crisis, you know, it didn't have to be exposed. It didn't have to come to come to the light. It didn't have to show up.

11 · Direct pastoral instruction: be hopeful (God is working) and fearful (you can still ruin it)

And the fact that it has is, I think, a sign very often that the Lord is, is yours and that he is, he's working in your life and is trying to grow you and so forth. So, you know, be hopeful throughout this. But again, be, be fearful also, because like I said, there, there are absolutely ways that you can, that you can ruin this.

12 · Signals structural shift into the 10-point catalog of ways to waste a crisis

All right. Well, let's see. What do we talk about here? Well, for one thing, you know, Piper talks about wasting his cancer. And I think it's true of any kind of terrible thing, scandal, collapse, exposure, discipline. And you could, these are all things that you can waste. And reality is, is that cancer is kind of, you know, not as embarrassing as some of the other things that you go through. So how do we handle this? Well, let's go through. I listed, I listed like 10 things that were kind of coming to mind about ways that I've been tempted to waste my crisis over the years. And yeah, let's talk about these.

13 · First way to waste crisis: depersonalizing it

So the first one is just to see this terrible calamity as something other than God at work. You will waste your crisis if you do not understand that this all came from God's hand. It's he who allows certain seeds to grow into fruit bearing trees and certain seeds not to. It's God's decision when he allows someone to reap what they will sow and when they reap what they sow. And so one of the things that you need to make sure you're not doing is this needs to be a very personal between you and God. This needs to be a season where you understand, as C.S. Lewis said, pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world. You need to understand that God is trying to do business with you. You know, I was in Isaiah for a while, personally, not too long ago. I've talked about this before. You know, the Lord is personally engaged with those people. He's personally giving them difficulties. He's personally saying, come now, let us reason together. He's personally saying, why do you spend money on that which does not satisfy, you know?

14 · Application of the claim: reject the naturalistic explanation ('bad turn of events') and embrace the personal one ('God is doing business with you')

So first thing is like, and I'm going to end on this one here a little bit. But the first thing, don't waste your crisis by thinking that this is somehow, oh, just a bad turn of events or whatever. Or, you know, it could have gone so many different ways. Yeah, it could have. Exactly. And this is, make sure that you understand God is doing business with you. That's what this season is. It is God doing business with you. He's setting you down. He's saying, we're going to deal with this in his personal way.

15 · Second way to waste crisis: seeing only judgment without mercy

Number two, you will waste your crisis if you see it as a pure curse and not as a severe mercy. If you see only judgment without grace, punishment without purpose, you miss the mercy that is sometimes clothed in severity. In other words, yes, God's doing business with you, but he's not punishing you exactly. He's trying to wake you up. He's trying to get you back to himself. The father who wounds in order to heal is the good father. That's what a good father does. He strips away in order to restore and so on and so forth. For the Christian, discipline is not God settling the score. It's God refusing you to leave, refusing to leave you to the illusions that you were already engaged in.

16 · Third way to waste crisis: failing to let the cross become more glorious

And I'm going to talk about what is the heart of that illusion here in a minute. Number three, you will waste your crisis if the cross does not become more glorious and necessary in your heart. Boy, this one. And this comes down to you being able to see that you're mostly here because you sinned.

17 · Expounds Romans 8:1 to establish the foundation for crisis navigation: no condemnation, but consequences

And then to see that God has allowed you to be in this position, Romans 8, 1 position, where there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That doesn't mean there aren't consequences. That doesn't mean there aren't lessons to be learned. But the very same God who struck you with this severe mercy, he's not mad at you. He has been satisfied fully by the death of Jesus Christ as the real, more than sufficient payment for your sins.

18 · Applies the Romans 8:1 exposition: you start crisis as a loved child, not a condemned defendant

And so you don't start this situation with a God who was out to get you. If you're a Christian, you start in your crisis from the position that a child starts with a loving, great, perfect father. It's rough. It's rough. He is a father. And he is going to have his time with you. He is going to do his business with you. But, man, you are not in danger of being destroyed by God. He has already destroyed your sin on his son, putting his son to death. So if the cross doesn't stand out to you as a remarkable miracle, as an absolute necessary, where would you be without it kind of thing, in the middle of your crisis, I don't think you understand your crisis. I don't think you understand what caused it. You need to be able to say, I've messed up, but thank God that Jesus Christ died a terrible death to pay for my screw-up.

19 · Fourth way to waste crisis: failing to see it as fundamentally relational rather than behavioral

Again, the cross doesn't eliminate consequences in terms of this world, but it absolutely changes the game. You are not under condemnation. You now have a good, faithful, perfect father working with you, not against you. Number four, you will waste your crisis if you don't see it fundamentally as wandering away from the Lord. Whatever behaviors got you into this position are a consequence, came about because you were not with the Lord.

20 · Application of the relational diagnosis: if you manage consequences without restoring intimacy with God, the crisis is wasted

And, you know, one of the great concerns of every crisis is it just, it springs up and affects everything in your life. And it's like, okay, I got to go get to work to all these things, like fixing all these things, handling all these things. It's like, yeah, I mean, you have a lot of work to do, but the one thing that got you here is you were not actively walking with God. I can promise you that. I can promise you that the way that people get into these self-made crises is that they start wandering away from God. Or they never walk with God to begin with. So, you will absolutely waste your crisis if you do not draw near to the heart of God and, like a deer panteth, so my soul longeth after thee, you know, if you don't get back to actually desiring God in a real meaningful way, yeah, this crisis will probably be wasted because what's going to happen is you'll endure all the hardships. Whatever's going to be is going to be. The consequences are going to be what the consequences are. And you're just on the other side, an empty, disconnected, hollow, not filled with the Spirit, not close to God, not praying through the day, not enjoying fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Like, you know, it's not really going to change anything. That's the worst possible way to waste all this pain is to not change anything about your actual relationship with God.

21 · Fifth way to waste crisis: defining success as restoration of the old life rather than gaining Christ

Number five, you will waste your crisis if you think beating it means getting your old life back instead of gaining Christ. Can I say that again? You will waste your crisis if you think beating it means getting your old life back instead of gaining Christ. The goal is not the restoration of your reputation or of normalcy or of calm. The goal is to get more of Christ. Your call returning to the baseline is not, you're not trying to recover. You're trying to repent and you're trying to get back and get more of Christ. You're starting, you're trying to come out of this a more loving and godly person who loves God and enjoys him more and feels dependent on him and so forth.

22 · Sixth way to waste crisis: prioritizing human reputation over divine approval

Number six, you will waste your crisis if you let embarrassment or letting others down become the main cost in your mind. If you start fearing the room more than you fear God, that's, that's, you're going to waste it. If you think of the primary pain that you're managing is your reputation of what others think. You don't yet have your eyes fixed on Jesus. You're not abiding in Jesus. You know, Jesus didn't entrust himself to man because he knew what was in man. And one of the clearest evidences of a person who's close to Jesus is that that starts to be their posture to the world.

23 · Personal testimony illustrating freedom from fear of man

You know, I used to struggle with this greatly. Thankfully, I was at a very young age, but I struggled with this greatly. And I, I, I would say like, I think I'm kind of known for this being this guy. And I don't, I don't think I'm as free of the fear of man as people think I am. But to the extent that I am, friends, it comes when you are abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in you. Christ is not afraid of man. He's the only one. Christ is not afraid of man.

24 · Applies the fear-of-man diagnosis: redirect embarrassment vertically (toward God) rather than horizontally (toward people)

So if you see your crisis as, you know, the embarrassment factor, if that's the thing you focus on, friends, you should be embarrassed before God that you've let him down, that you failed him, that you haven't been obedient, that you haven't enjoyed him and walked with him. All this other people, who cares? They're going to be dead just as soon as you are. You're going to stand before the one who matters.

25 · Seventh way to waste crisis: choosing isolation over deepened love

Number seven, you will waste your crisis if isolation happens instead of a deeper love. If you fold inward, start hiding, especially if people don't treat you well, instead of being softened toward others, that's a major concern. Don't let this isolate you. Don't let this cause you to hide.

26 · Application of the isolation warning: walk into the room as the person who screwed up, own it publicly, and you become the richest person there

Walk into the room. That's the guy who crapped the bed. Say, I crapped the bed. That's what I did. You know, and just own the mistakes. Walk in as the girl who just screwed it up and say, this is who I am. All I have is Christ. You'll be the richest person in the room. You'll be the person, the healthiest person in the room. If you get to the point where you think, all I have is Christ. And that's one of the things that I would really want to communicate. There is going to be, if you handle this well, if you respond to your crisis well, there's going to be a season where you are actually the healthiest and happiest person in the world. And you look miserable. Like, not miserable. Pathetic. Because all of these consequences, they're still coming. You're still pulling the weeds of your old sin. Like, you're in a rough spot. But you have the joy of the Lord. And you're actually pretty happy.

27 · Illustrates the paradox of Christian suffering: looking like a martyr (nothing externally) while possessing everything (the Lord)

So, that's just a part of this deal. When God punches your ticket and he says, you're going to, we're going to talk. Here's the crisis. Well, there's going to be, if you turn to the Lord with all of your heart and lean down on your understanding, if you really turn to him, you're going to have this disparity. And it's going to look a lot like, you know what it's going to look a lot like? It's going to look a lot like a martyr or, yeah, like a martyr or even just Jesus throughout his life. Like, here's a person who has nothing. Why are they so happy? Because they have the Lord.

28 · Eighth way to waste crisis: treating it as terminal

Number eight. You're going to waste your crisis if you start grieving as though, oh, it's all ruined. I've ruined it all and so forth. No, you haven't ruined it all. You're going to be fine. God, your life is, you know, there's a lot of story left to live. And no, you're going to be totally fine. You're going to be more than fine. So, stop thinking that your life's over and so forth. It's not. You'll be okay. I promise. Just don't waste your crisis. Turn to the Lord.

29 · Ninth way to waste crisis: treating old sins casually after initial brokenness fades

Number nine. If you treat your old sin to sins as casually as you did before, you're going to have a problem. And around the, you know, you're going to be a period of time where you're so broken and so devastated that you're going to really try. And you're going to do well for a while. And then that self-will battery wears down usually, you know, 60 to 90 days. And those old sins will start to appear less gross than they did before. Just, you know, 30 days before. You got to watch for that. This is actually not, it's one of the easier issues to deal with, but you need to understand it's coming. It's, you know, Peter tells us to abstain from youthful passions which wage war against our souls. Like, just know this is coming to take all the work, all the spiritual work you've done in this crisis. There's a moment coming that's going to take all that away by making your old sins seem like not such a big deal. And that honestly, everybody does it and people were overreacting and, well, I know Sally or this or that. It's like, stop, stop.

30 · Tenth way to waste crisis: ignoring its evangelistic and pastoral potential

And then finally, number 10, you're going to waste your crisis. If you ignore the doors, it opens to bear witness to Christ. What I'm saying here is, is that there's only, of all the people in the world, there's a very small number of people who have been broken and healed by Christ. And they're very special people. And that's what God's doing here. Broken and healed. And beauty for ashes, right? Isaiah again. And so, if you, you need to understand that that's coming for you, you need, that's one of the reasons why you need to stop being embarrassed. Because the position, the time is coming when you will be more used to others than many other people would be. Because you've gone through it.

31 · Signals major structural pivot

Okay. But that's all kind of like, I would say that was two weeks ago. I was thinking about things. And none of it's wrong. But I think there is a deeper question. And that is just like, where are you with God? The warnings are all kind of out here. You know, they're all sort of the life that you've messed up because of your choices. It's all out here. But I just want to tell you, like, you absolutely have to see this as fundamentally about you and the Lord.

32 · Exposition of Psalm 51:4

David says, against you, it's on 51 after his crisis with Bathsheba. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Why only God? I mean, it's obvious. It doesn't mean that David hadn't harmed anyone else. He had. Bathsheba was sinned against. Uriah was sinned against. Israel, his nation that was depending on him, was sinned against. But David is going underneath all the horizontal wreckage to the deepest center of the matter.

33 · The controlling theological claim of the sermon

All sin is finally against God, and it starts firstly against God. All sin is firstly against God and finally against God. When all of the debts are paid to your fellow man, if they ever can be, the reality is that your sin started with God and it will end with God. It is rebellion against his rule, contempt for his word, and frankly, a wandering away from his love.

34 · Warns against pragmatizing the crisis into behavior modification

One of the things I would tell you is that you've got to be super careful not to depersonalize this into, I made bad choices, now I need to make better choices. Don't pragmatize this where I was doing X, it didn't work out well, I should have done Y. No, this is all personal. There is a God who made you, who shed his own son's blood to be your friend. He wants to meet with you. He wants to meet with you. He wants you to talk to him. He wants you to love him. And we're in the spot we're in with this crisis because you stopped doing that, or you weren't doing that.

35 · The anthropological grounding: talking to God throughout the day is the most fundamental human function

That's what I mean when I say all sin starts with God and it ends with God. Like, this all starts with you not talking to him. I believe that the best barometer for your daily spiritual health is, are you talking to him throughout the day? And I harp on that constantly. It's one of my main application points in my preaching. Talk to God throughout the day. Why? Because it is the most, because I'm a big Genesis 1 through 3 guy, that's why, it is the most fundamental function of a human being to walk with God in the cool of the day.

36 · The sermon's climactic claim: wasting the crisis is failing to become close to God

So, really, fundamentally, you'll waste your crisis if you don't become close to God. Not obedient, not better off, not making better choices. You will waste your crisis if you do not see that all of this is about God bringing you back to himself and saying, Hey, you and I should talk. You and I should be together. That's how you not waste your crisis. That's how you don't waste your crisis. You turn back to the Lord.

37 · Brings together Psalm 51, Psalm 119, and Hebrews 12 to define the pleasant harvest: walking with God

And David, you know, he says, like, clean my heart. He says, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Elsewhere, the psalm says, In Psalm 119, David says, It is good that you afflicted me. For now I walk with you. It is good that you afflicted me. It is good that you dealt harshly with me. I think another psalm says, For now I'm walking with you. That's the fruitful harvest that Hebrews is talking about. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but in the end yields a fruitful, pleasant harvest. What's the pleasant harvest? It's being on good terms with your maker.

38 · Doxological expansion on who God is—creator, sustainer, redeemer, the one who gives all good gifts

The one who made you, who loves you, who knows every cell in your body, who has your life in the palm of his hand, who gives you good food and good love and people and beauty and all these things. The God who made you, who sent his son to die for you. That's who is behind all of this. He's going to use your sin to turn you back to him.

39 · Application with pastoral realism: circumstances cannot be guaranteed, but the purpose of the crisis can be—it is to restore intimacy with God

And so if you will just do that, I can't promise you how your consequences will play out for your crisis, but if you'll just start loving the Lord with a pure heart, if you'll start prioritizing that of drawing near to him, I promise you, that's why all this is happening, is to get you back to that spot.

40 · Evangelistic turn

And listen, if you've never been in that spot, I will just tell you point blank. In the Southern Baptist world, we used to have the prayer of salvation and the prayer of rededication. And I, you know, I just grew up in that world. I heard both those prayers. And at some point in my early 20s, it dawned on me, these prayers are saying the exact same thing. They're just, I have sinned. I need you to forgive me. Jesus, be my Lord and Savior. And give me the relationship, the power to have a relationship with you that I need.

41 · Direct evangelistic application

So what I would just tell you is, is that, you know, what you need to do is you need to go to the Lord. Stop holding. Some of you might be doing this. Stop trying to discern. Am I saved? Am I not saved? If be saved today. How about that? Today is a day of salvation. What you should do is call upon the name of the Lord and be changed.

42 · Models the prayer of repentance

Repent. Say, I've neglected you. I haven't lived for you. You've been a tool, an instrument for me to accomplish various things in my life. I've used your wisdom. I've used your people. I've used your church, whatever. But I want to be your friend. I want to walk with you in the cool of the day. And I know that Jesus did come in the flesh. And that he did die on a cross for my sins, including the sins that I've committed against you that have led me to this spot. So, Lord, I want to be yours. I want to be yours. Whatever that means, whatever has to happen, whether I have to get saved or whether I have to get brought back, just ask the Lord, give me what I need to be your friend.

43 · Post-conversion discipleship instruction

And then the next day and the day after that and the day after that, just prioritize talking to him. Prioritize talking to him. Prioritize asking him for a new heart. Prioritize asking him for the joy of your salvation. Start meditating every day on the reality is that you got into the situation because you ignored him. In meaningful ways, you ignored him. You didn't ignore ideas, principles. You ignored a person. The person. From whom all persons come. And just try to stir up in your heart like this sense of, I am actually a man or a woman who has neglected the one person I should never have neglected. And seek to resolve that.

44 · Promises the paradox again—sweetness of heart in the midst of hard circumstances

And you would be shocked just by insisting on that and pursuing that, seeking that, that you will, you will really be shocked by how sweet your heart is, even if your life is hard for a season.

45 · Concludes by framing Psalm 51 as the manual for crisis navigation

I would just point you to Psalm 51, but specifically to Psalm 51 in the sense of, it is a place for a person in a crisis to go to reconnect with the person who allowed the crisis to, you know, bloom. That is God, who has been, who has had a plan for a very long time to get you to this spot. Not so that you can scramble around and try to manage situations and manage opinions. And not lose everything and so forth. He's brought you to this spot to sober you up and say, we need to talk. And so I would just encourage you to not waste your crisis and definitely to talk. You'll find there on the other side of this whole thing, a God who is really, really a joy to know, to walk with and to listen to.

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May 10, 2026

Imperishable Beauty

Christian wives (and all believers in unjust circumstances) must entrust themselves to God's sovereign control rather than grasp for their own weapons of control, following Christ's example of submission to unjust authority as the path to true peace and ultimate vindication.

1 Peter 3:1-6

May 15 · This sermon

Don't Waste Your Crisis: How to Recover from a Self-Inflicted Wound

You will waste your crisis if you do not see it fundamentally as God bringing you back to himself, prioritizing restored intimacy with him over the restoration of your circumstances, reputation, or old life.

Psalm 51

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Psalm 51:4, David says 'Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.' What does David mean by claiming his s…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the arc of crisis as God's redemptive work: from understanding that suffering alone does not sanctify, through recognizing God's active hand in discipline, to seeing that the goal is not restored circumstances but restored intimacy with Christ.

Prayer

Prayer for Intimacy Restored

Father, you are near to the brokenhearted and you do not despise a crushed and repentant spirit (Psalm 51:17). We confess that we have wande…

Family table

When God Breaks You to Bring You Back

This prompt invites your family to think about what it means when hard things happen because of our own choices—and what God is really doing…

Couples

Crisis as Invitation: Walking with God Again

What part of the sermon made you feel most seen—either in your own struggle with sin, or in God's response to it?…

Memorize

Psalm 51:10

This verse captures the sermon's central claim that crisis must produce a transformation of the inner person—a restored relationship with God—rather than mere behavior modification or circumstantial recovery. David's plea for a renewed spirit embodies the proper response to self-inflicted crisis: seeking intimacy with God and a heart aligned with His rule, not simply escaping consequences.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Psalm 51:4, David says 'Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.' What does David mean by claiming his sin is 'against God' when his actions clearly affected Bathsheba, Uriah, and others around him? How does this reframe what sin actually is?

Psalm 51:4

→ What difference does it make in your own repentance when you see your sin primarily as offense against God rather than primarily as damage to others or yourself?
The sermon argues that suffering does not automatically make a person better—a crisis can leave someone worse off or unchanged. From your observation or experience, what determines whether a difficult season actually produces growth versus leaving a person hardened or unchanged?

Hebrews 12:6-11
According to the sermon, the primary danger in crisis is 'pragmatizing' it into behavior modification rather than seeing it as God's invitation to restored relationship. What is the difference between 'fixing your behavior' and 'turning back to God,' and why does the sermon argue that one can happen without the other?

→ Can you think of a time when you focused on changing behavior without addressing your relational distance from God? What was the result?
Psalm 51:10 and 51:12 show David asking God to 'create in me a clean heart' and restore 'the joy of your salvation.' Why does David pray for these inward realities rather than simply asking God to fix his external circumstances or reputation?

Psalm 51:10, Psalm 51:12

→ What does this teach us about what recovery actually looks like in the aftermath of a self-inflicted crisis?
The sermon identifies a 'fallen condition focus'—a specific way we waste crisis: by making fear of man and embarrassment our primary concern rather than offending God. When you're in the middle of a crisis, what does it look like practically to reorient from 'What will people think?' to 'How have I wandered from God?'
The sermon teaches that 'the goal of crisis is not recovering your old life but gaining Christ'—that you succeed when you emerge more dependent on and delighted in God, not when circumstances normalize. How would you know if you had truly 'succeeded' in a crisis by this measure? What would be different about you?

Romans 8:28

→ What makes this measure of success so difficult for us to embrace, especially in the first weeks after exposure or failure?

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Hebrews 12:6-11

The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that discipline without the Lord's love becomes mere punishment, and that the 'peaceful harvest of righteousness' comes only to 'those trained by it'—not automatically, but through receptive, gospel-rooted response. We waste our crisis when we assume pain itself produces maturity; the question is whether we allow God's fatherly hand to retrain our hearts toward him.

Tuesday Psalm 119:71

The psalmist's paradoxical joy—'It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes'—reveals that affliction itself is not the good; the good is what affliction teaches us about God's character and our need for his word. We discover in our exposure not God's judgment abandoning us, but God's active pursuit of our transformation.

Wednesday Romans 8:28

Paul's declaration that 'all things work together for good to those who love God' does not mean crisis feels good or that the sin producing it was God's will, but rather that the all-wise God is weaving even our self-inflicted wounds into his redemptive purpose. Our crisis is not random chaos; it is the Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer using our falling away to turn us back to himself.

Thursday Genesis 3:8

Adam and Eve's first instinct after sin was to hide from God's presence in the garden; all our self-inflicted crises flow from that same root—we have wandered from our foundational calling to walk with God in the cool of the day. The behaviors that brought exposure are symptoms; the sickness is relational distance, and only recovered intimacy with God addresses the infection.

Friday 2 Corinthians 6:2

Paul urges the Corinthians to seize 'the acceptable time' and 'the day of salvation' now—not to waste the opportunity crisis creates to turn decisively toward Christ rather than toward restoration of the old. We waste our crisis when we believe rescue means returning to what was; we redeem it when we recognize that God is inviting us into something far better: himself.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Prayer for Intimacy Restored

Father, you are near to the brokenhearted and you do not despise a crushed and repentant spirit (Psalm 51:17). We confess that we have wandered from you, and that our self-inflicted crises are evidence not of your absence but of your fierce love at work to turn us back to yourself. We thank you that in Christ's cross, all our rebellion has been met with substitutionary mercy, that his empty tomb assures us we are not beyond recovery, and that his Spirit now indwells us to draw us into deeper fellowship with you than we have ever known. We praise you that you prefer the company of those who are disappointed with themselves, who see their sin first and finally as an offense against your holy rule and your loving heart.

Therefore, grant us the grace to see our crises not as terminal but as severe mercy—your wound meant to heal, your exposure meant to restore us to intimacy with you. Help us to resist the temptation to reduce our repentance to mere behavior modification; instead, make us a people who long above all else to walk with you in the cool of the day, to talk with you throughout our hours, and to find our deepest satisfaction in your presence rather than in the restoration of our circumstances or reputation. Give us courage to turn away from fear of man and the isolation that shame whispers to us, and instead move us toward vulnerability with your church, deepening our love for one another as we are softened by our own breaking. Free us from treating our old sins casually when the initial brokenness fades; strengthen us in the weeks ahead to cling to the cross and remember what you paid to bring us home. And Father, grant us eyes to see how you are making us broken and healed—a rare people whose wounds can become our witness to others who are lost.

We pray all this through Christ our Lord, in whom we are more than forgiven—we are restored to the Father's embrace. Amen.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

When God Breaks You to Bring You Back

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to think about what it means when hard things happen because of our own choices—and what God is really doing in those moments. Listen for whether your kids are starting to see crisis as something God uses to draw us closer to him, not just to punish us.

In the sermon, Chris talked about how when we mess up badly and get caught or exposed, that painful moment can actually be God saying, 'I want you back.' Can you think of a time when you got caught doing something wrong, and instead of just getting punished, someone helped you see they actually wanted to be close to you again? What did that feel like—and how is that like what God does in a crisis?

Works for ages 8+; younger children can listen and share simpler examples with help from a parent

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Crisis as Invitation: Walking with God Again

What part of the sermon made you feel most seen—either in your own struggle with sin, or in God's response to it?
Where might we be treating our circumstances or reputation as more important than our closeness to God, and how can we help each other turn back to him together?
What specific way can you pray for your spouse this week—that they would experience God's nearness, or that a particular area of their life would deepen their dependence on Christ?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Why this verse: This verse captures the sermon's central claim that crisis must produce a transformation of the inner person—a restored relationship with God—rather than mere behavior modification or circumstantial recovery. David's plea for a renewed spirit embodies the proper response to self-inflicted crisis: seeking intimacy with God and a heart aligned with His rule, not simply escaping consequences.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

Plan a visit →

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [The Life of Christ Fuels Christian Endurance (1 Peter 1:13-19, 2026-04-12)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2026/04/the-life-of-christ-fuels-christian-endurance)
- [New Birth & Brotherly Love (1 Peter 1:13-2:3, 2026-04-19)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2026/04/new-birth-brotherly-love)
- [Imperishable Beauty (1 Peter 3:1-6, 2026-05-10)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2026/05/imperishable-beauty)
- [Don't Waste Your Crisis: How to Recover from a Self-Inflicted Wound (Psalm 51, 2026-05-15)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2026/05/don-t-waste-your-crisis-how-to-recover-from-a)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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