Pastor Mark Finley talks about his recent injury and recovery. He also shares a short biblical lesson on how to give thanks to God in difficult times.

<p>Pastor Mark Finley talks about his recent injury and recovery. He also shares a short biblical lesson on how to give thanks to God in difficult times.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

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Mark Finley

Mark Finley Talks About His Injury

This is Pastor Mark, of course, and I'm here in a rehabilitation center in northern Virginia.

Some of you have said to me, Pastor Mark, whatever happened to you?

But before I describe that, let me just thank you for your prayers, your support, your encouragement, your notes, your emails.

You know, it's a wonderful thing to be part of the Worldwide Church of God and to know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

As Seventh-day Adventists around the world and as fellow Christians, We hold 1 another up in prayer.

And so thank you for lifting me up to the Lord.

We have a pastor's retreat center also for physicians and administrators and groups that come to us in northern Virginia.

And I had been in 1 of our facility facilities, we have about 20 acres of land, and I was rushing up a trail to go to another 1 of our facilities, stepped in a root, fell over, broke my femur, dislodged the ball from the top of the femur right at the hip.

So I've had to have major, major surgery.

And I am just so thankful for so many things.

I'm thankful that I was lying on the trail.

I could get my cell phone and call Brother George and my wife to come and help me.

What if I didn't have my cell phone and was lying there for many hours?

I'm sure my wife would have come looking for me and others, But that was such a blessing.

Also that very same day, we had a number of physicians coming to our retreat center.

And so before many hours, I had a...physicians were there, internal medicine specialists, radiologists, anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeon.

They were all coming to the retreat and through this whole process, they gave wonderful counsel and guidance.

Now, I had a very extensive surgery, lost a lot of blood in the surgery, but I'm recovering well.

But I'm learning a lot of new techniques.

If I want to take off my socks, I've got to use this little gizmo here.

I catch my sock right here and try to push my sock off.

You know, I'm not a specialist as you can see yet, but here we go, I've got it.

And so if I were by myself, I can take my sock off.

Well, if I want to put socks on, here I have what we call a reacher.

So I can reach anything here and pull my socks back up with my reacher, you see.

I'll show you how I use my reacher later.

Then because I couldn't move my leg, my left leg is where I have my surgery, but I can take this and I can move my leg.

This of course is not the surgical leg and it would give me a lot more power, a lot more pain if I try to pull this up too far.

I'm learning to use my wheelchair, learning to use my walker, and the Lord is very, very good to me.

I wanna talk to you today about something that may surprise you.

And what I wanna chat with you about is why you can be thankful in all things.

The Bible puts it this way, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and it says in verse 16, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now I want you to notice carefully the wording.

The Bible does not say rejoice in everything that happens to you.

It says rejoice at all times no matter what happens.

Now notice what the Bible says, in everything give thanks.

It does not say for everything give thanks.

I don't give thanks because I broke my femur.

I don't give thanks because a person, a Christian, is hit by a car when they're crossing the street and killed.

I don't give thanks that bombs are dropping and children's legs are being blown off.

But the Bible is very interesting, isn't it?

In other words, whatever circumstance you find yourself in in life, you can find things to be thankful for in that circumstance.

So what are some of the things that I can be thankful for?

I'm going to use my little gripper here to get my notes.

And what are some of the things that I can be thankful for in all of this?

1, when I put my foot on that root, I was on quite a little dam, it was crossing between 2 pretty good-sized embankments, and I could have easily stumbled and gone down into the water.

I give thanks to God that I wasn't injured more and that I didn't stumble and go down the embankment.

I give thanks to God that there were physicians that were coming to our retreat center to help me.

I give thanks to God because just before this we were planning an evangelistic meeting via Zoom in China.

I sent the graphics to Daniel Zhao, the president of our work in China, and we sent also to Pastor Zhao the sermons word for word.

So although I was injured and couldn't do the evangelistic series, I give thanks and praise God that Pastor Jow stepped in, did the evangelistic series, and there were 3.4 million downloads, millions of people.

Now what are the things that I give thanks for personally?

The first thing that I give thanks for personally is this, that God is teaching me to depend totally, completely, and always on Him no matter what happens in my life.

That this tragedy that has happened to me is leading me to deeper trust in God.

So we don't give thanks for every evil thing that happens, but within the context of that pain, that suffering, we learn to learn lessons which we can be thankful for.

In Isaiah 26 verse 3 it says, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

So if our minds are fixed upon Jesus and we learn to trust in Jesus, then we have perfect peace.

Is it difficult for a person that's active like me, not being able to get up and jump out of this wheelchair and walk, it sure is, but God gives me peace.

Because I'm learning to trust him more deeply.

There's something else that God is teaching me here.

I don't know, maybe God needs to teach you this lesson too.

And here's what God is teaching me, that I am a mortal human being.

And I was looking at that in my notes and jotted it down, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7 to 10.

You know, sometimes even at 81, We're doing 5 radio programs a week, preaching all over the world, doing our YouTube ministry, counseling with people, have our retreat ministry.

And sometimes, you know, you almost feel like, man, nothing, I'm such good health, you know, I'm exercising, I've got a good diet.

But what did the apostle Paul say here in 2 Corinthians 4, starting with verse 7?

But we have this treasure, this is the treasure of Christ in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." You see that word, earthen vessels, there?

So if somebody says to you, you're a cracked pot, you are.

You see, we are actually like clay cracked pots.

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Mark Finley Talks About His Injury

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