Untitled Sermon

Introduction

If you live long enough on this earth you know that their will be times in your life that will not be easy and what makes those times even harder is when it becomes a situation that is out of your control. Some may go through financial hardship while others may experience martial difficulties and even though you may feel like your situation is unique God has seen it all.

There have been times in my life where I have felt that the walls where caving in on me. Where I have never felt more lonely in that moment then I ever been. In times like these we want the quick fix solution to get things back to normal. We believe that if we talk to this person, read this book or try this new idea then our problems will be solved. But what if I told you that God wanted you right where you are for His purpose and His will. At times like these we focus so much on the problem that we forget the presence of God. However, God is with us in all of our circumstances and we need to trust him during times of health and in times of suffering.

When you experience hard times in your Christian life you may feel like “I did not sign up for this. “I thought that a life with Christ would be like a daily scoop of ice cream and pictures of unicorns and rainbows.” But if you have been a Christian for a day you know that this is not the case. In fact the apostles knew this as well. Timothy told us that if you want to live a Godly life in Jesus Christ you will be persecuted. (2 Tim 3:12)

What does trusting in God during times of suffering look like? Do we talk differently? Do we walk differently? Psalms 37:21 tells us to commit our ways to the Lord, trust in Him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.

In the text this morning Paul gives us an example of what our attitude should be during times of suffering. Paul’s imprisonment involved his hands being chained. He had very little privacy because he was constantly under guard. Paul probably wondered why he was chained and felt like the guards were enough for his imprisonment. These chains were so uncomfortable that he mentions them six times in the letter.

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