Scarred

We have Hope, especially in our sufferings

ME: When I was in High School, I was a runner. I mean, I did cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track, so all I seemed to do was run. I probably look like I still run, but I don’t. As a runner, all that we did for practice was run. And I mean a lot. What is considered punishment for other sports like baseball and football and just about any other sport, we did for fun. Anyone who has ran before can tell you that you feel pain when you run. And don’t tell me that you don’t feel pain. The only reason you don’t think that you are in pain is because your body has gotten used to it. You are basically subjecting your body to torture. Sure, it is healthy, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are torturing yourself. So imagine that when you run, you just feel pain for 3.1 miles. It sucks, like a lot.

In cross country, you wear spikes during the race because they are supposed to give you better grip. Personally, I don’t see much of a difference, but it is a cool feeling, knowing that your feet have metal spikes on them. Anyway, during the first race of the season when I was a sophomore, I put on my spikes from the year before. However, in the few months between track and cross country, my feet had grown a bit. Like I was a size or two bigger now. So I go to this race and have to squeeze my slightly larger feet into these spikes that do not fit. I tell myself that it was just a minor inconvenience, that my feet were just a little uncomfortable. The race starts, and 3.1 miles later I can hardly walk. I had these battle wounds on the backs of both of my feet, and it HURT. Like, a lot. For about 2 weeks I had to wear those massive band-aids on the backs of my feet. Because of my terrible choice to wear those spikes, I now had to run at practice with massive blisters on my feet. It felt like running on knives.

Since then, the wound has healed, but I still have the scars to show them (it was a while ago, so maybe not so much anymore). I love to see my scars because they tell a story. On my wrist, right here, I was playing ultimate frisbee and made an awesome catch, sliding on my wrist as I caught it. Right here on my forearm, I have a scar from when I burned myself frying nachos at taco bell. I have one on the back of my head from a pillow fight gone wrong. On my knee I have a few from Oktoberfest riding that mechanical bull if any of you were there. And my most awesome scars are on my back when I got mauled by a bear or tiger. Okay, that one is not true. The real story is that I have stretch marks on my back from when I hit my last growth spurt in high school, but I kid you not, it looks like I had a giant creature attack me. It looks AWESOME.

WE: You probably have some scars to show as well. You might have physical scars to show. Maybe they are from something awesome and they tell a great story. But you probably have some smaller scars from when you fell off your bike as a kid, from when you cut yourself on accident, or from touching a hot pan. Maybe you have emotional scars from the past. Scars from broken hearts, scars from broken trust, scars from abuse. Or maybe we even have some spiritual scars. Maybe we can’t get past the guilt we feel from past sins. We might not think that we deserve to be forgiven and healed from our past, or if we even can at all. We might have gone through an experience in our lives where all we can think is, “Why am I being punished” or “What did I do wrong?” or EVEN “Where is God?”

You see, we all go through experiences in our life that will leave behind some kind of scar. The fact is that you are not the same after you are scarred. It is interesting how a scar never truly goes away. When you have a scar, it stays visible because it heals and ends up different than regular skin. The scar tissue doesn’t have hair follicles so it can’t be covered up. Whether you like it or not, you are not the same after you have a scar. Maybe you kind of like your scars, maybe you hate that you are constantly reminded of them. But they all tell a story. They tell a story of our suffering. They tell of something that you had to go through, some battle you faced, some experience you had to undergo. And they serve as a reminder that we are mortal. Like physical scars, the sufferings that we go through in life create a kind of spiritual scar in us.

GOD: We can all testify to the fact that we suffer sometimes in life. What good can even come from suffering? Let’s turn to Romans 5:1-8 to see what Paul has to say about this. It goes like this: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The verses that really interest me here are verses 3 and 4. Here, Paul says something that seems completely absurd. Let me reread it. “3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” What is Paul thinking here? We should GLORY in our sufferings. Suffering and glory do not seem to go together. If anything, it should be suffering and .. unglory, whatever that is called. In Paul’s world, there was shame and dishonor in any kind of suffering. This is why criminals were tortured because it took away any sort of honor that they had left. That is what makes it so radical that to us Christians, Christ, being fully God, was tortured and crucified.

If anyone knew what suffering was, it was Paul. He was frequently in prison, and he was flogged all the time. He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, bit by a snake, and the list goes on. He was constantly persecuted in whatever city he was in. And yet Paul kept persevering through his sufferings. Look at what Paul accomplished because God was working through him. He established churches across the Roman Empire and was a key figure in the Early church. He wrote nearly half of the New Testament. He was a great teacher, missionary, and evangelist. And this is coming from the man who persecuted the church in the first part of his life.

But what good can come from sufferings? Here now comes the best part of what Paul is saying about our sufferings: sufferings are not something that we simply have to persevere through, they are something that we go through that can benefit us. The chain that Paul makes here is suffering to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. Let’s break this down. First, as we suffer, we learn to persevere through sufferings, to push through even when it gets hard. And as we learn to persevere, it changes our character, the stuff we are made of. Perseverance molds us into a more mature Christian as James 1:4 puts it, “Let perseverance finish its work in you, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” And finally, we see that character produces in us hope. By being a mature Christian, we learn to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the future glory that will be fully realized. You see, the key for Paul is that he always had hope, even and especially through his sufferings. We likewise need hope because in the end, we know that God will work out all things for our good. Even in the midst of our sufferings, God has not abandoned us. The main point that I am getting at is that we have hope, especially through our sufferings. Let’s take another look at Romans 5:5. “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” In other translations, ‘hope will never put us to shame’ is translated as ‘hope will never disappoint us.’ I really like this idea. Hope in what God has for us is something we can ALWAYS count on.

Looking back to the Old Testament to a character who has persevered through suffering, we think of Job. However, I don’t want to talk about Job today, because that’s probably who you are expecting me to talk about. Instead, I’m going to talk about Joseph. Like Paul, Joseph had a crazy life that was full of suffering. First, his own brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. Next, he works his way up the totem pole to be the chief slave, only to be knocked down even lower than before to be a prisoner. Finally, he catches a break and becomes second to the Pharoah. Eventually, his own brothers come back to him for food. Can you imagine what is going through Joseph’s head when he sees his own brothers, who sold him into slavery? Take a moment to ask yourself what you would do? Maybe you would feel angry with them, wanting them to pay. Maybe you wanted them to go away. After all, they kicked you out of their life. Or maybe you simply don’t know what you would do, and that’s okay. Joseph, however, feels no anger toward them. He wants them to be a family again. Meanwhile, Joseph’s brothers worry that he is holding a grudge against them. They come up with a plan to say that their father Jacob instructed Joseph to forgive his brothers before he died. However, what Joseph says next is amazing, summing up what Paul explains. In Genesis 50:20 he says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Joseph keeps his focus on the big picture, his final prize. Not only did God use Joseph’s sufferings for his good, but God was able to use his sufferings for the good of many people.

YOU:

I want to bring us back to the idea that our scars tell a story about our sufferings. I’m sure that Paul and Joseph also had some scars to show the hardships they went through. The story that our spiritual scars tell us is one, the same it will ever be: God has brought us through and will continue to bring us through our sufferings. It is a great feeling when all is well with us and we can praise God with ease. But we must believe that if God is with us on the mountaintop, he is also with us in the valley. God is with you as you struggle to bring your family to church. God is with you when you struggle to believe that he is good. God is with you when you suffer for his name’s sake. And God is with you when you suffer for no apparent reason. Suffering is a part of our lives, whether you like it or not. The question for you is whether or not you will let God use your sufferings for good. Do you give God greater power over your lives than the suffering? Will you? Or is it the other way around?

When we look back at Joseph, he went through a lot, but God used it for not only his good, but for the good of others. If Joseph did not go into slavery, he would have lived a happy, pretty normal life. And that would have been good. However, he went through slavery and prison. Because of this, God was able to use his suffering for his glory. And God took care of him through it. Likewise, our sufferings can and will be used for good by God if we let him. The scars that are left after the suffering serve as an example to us that God’s power works in and through us. When I was getting to the main point for this sermon, I got the idea that we have hope, even in our sufferings. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realize that what you need to know today is that We have hope, ESPECIALLY in our sufferings. Therefore, sufferings are not something that we should avoid at all costs, suffering is something that we should recognize as something that brings us to maturity. God works everything out for the good of those who love him. Again, I say, we have hope, especially in our sufferings.

Now I want you all to close your eyes. I’m going to simulate a race for you. Imagine that you are running a race. You have been hurting now for some time, but you’ve got only a little bit left to go. You are breathing heavy. You start to feel cramps in your stomach and your muscles. Your whole body is screaming for you to stop running. All you can see is what is in front of you, you have tunnel vision. As you round the turn, you can hear the crowd cheering for you at the finish line. That finish line is your goal and it gives you the endurance to run the race. You can open your eyes now

The point of that illustration is that our journey with God is like running a race. When I would run for cross country, I knew that there was a finish line waiting for me. It gave me hope while I was running because I knew that I would soon be to the end of the race and the end of my pain. Here’s the thing about finishing a race: the suffering you go through during the race seems to fade as soon as you cross the finish line. You remember the pain from the race, but you don’t feel the pain anymore. The same is true for running a race with God. We have the hope to carry on because we know that we will get to our spiritual finish line someday. We do not run aimlessly. You may even have some scars left from your sufferings. All that they do is serve as a reminder to you that God pulled you through those hard times. We have hope, especially in sufferings.

WE

The most glorious part of running this spiritual race is the fact that we are not alone. There are people that have gone before us and there are people who will go after us. But now there are people running this race just like you are. And guess what? They might be suffering too. This is not a solo race we are in; we are in this race together.

Imagine what it would look like if WE were a church that was not afraid to suffer because we know that God was working all things out for our good. How much stress would we be freed from? What if we were not afraid to show off our spiritual scars because they show off how God has worked in us? How much more faithful of a witness would the church be to the world? How much more distinct would we be from the world? We should then rejoice even in the midst of our sufferings and we should remember our scars. After all, we have hope, especially in our sufferings.